For Today: July 22nd

Repetition is the only form of permanence that nature can achieve.

George Santayana

When I tire of the sameness of the program, I wonder why there isn’t some more advanced way of doing it.  Now that I’m abstinent, thin and sane, why do I have to keep going to the same meetings, hearing and saying the same things?

Different people have different answers to such questions.  Some change meetings; others turn to more challenging forms of service.  What I know is this: I have a cunning, baffling and powerful disease that can and does throw every trick in the book at me.

Yes, I need to be at meetings.  Yes, I need to hear newcomers.  And yes, I need to keep on working the program over and over again.  I have read the Big Book and the Twelve and Twelve a hundred times, and each time the same words give me a different meaning, a new insight.

For Today: Thank God I'm here; pray God to keep me here.

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Routine is key for me as a compulsive overeater. Only through repetition do I have a chance of staying abstinent & having it feel like second nature to me.  My food plan is what keeps me on track and sharing myself with others who suffer as I do.  The OA literature, meetings and service keep me centered and focused.

When I give back to others, I can step away from myself and recognize that I am not the center of the universe. It's easy enough to get caught up in that thinking pattern and to forget my true purpose in life: to love others, to show kindness & understanding, and to give service.  If I fall away from my OA program, I am easily back to my old habits in no time at all.

For today, I pray to keep my OA program intact, one day at a time, one meal at a time.