For Today: December 26th

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

What injustice to think myself a failure because I have to begin again!  So I slipped, or relapsed; so what?  Starting over is what all creation is about; it is part of the fabric of success in enterprises ranging from spinning a web to splitting the atom.

Willingness to make a new beginning is a sign of growth.  It means I am returning to the program with a deeper understanding of myself and my illness.  Far from wanting to hide in the back of the room, I feel I have something of value to contribute.  The Big Book tells me that to get started on the road to recovery, nothing works better than getting out and working with others.  One way to do that is to share my discovery that relapse, which for me is the only alternative to the OA program, has renewed my faith in that program.

For Today:  I think of the term “retread,"  as proof of how wonderfully accepting and free we OAs can be about the nature of our disease.  If there were no Overeaters Anonymous I might have to give in to the gloom and doom; but OA is alive and well and going strong----and so am I!

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Relapse will probably happen to all of us at some point.  Compulsive overeating is a disease I deal with on a daily basis.........not something that, once it's in recovery, is gone forever. 

The holidays can be particularly destructive for people like me.  Trying to convince myself I can be a 'normal' eater and just have trigger foods 'in moderation', like everyone else.  That's a lie and I know it.  By the grace of God, I have remained abstinent this year and did not fall prey to the siren song of excess.

But, I've relapsed myself, quite a few times.  I always have my program & my food plan to return to, however, and for me, that's what keeps me centered.  I don't think of myself as a 'failure' if I do fall off plan, but I don't consider it OK to stay off plan either.   A big part of my recovery is honesty: seeing the truth & accepting it for what it is.

One Day at a Time . . .
I acknowledge that in my Higher Power
I have a love that can never be fathomed,
A spiritual resource that can never be exhausted,
A peace that can never be understood,
A rest that can never be disturbed,
A joy that can never be diminished,
A hope that can never be disappointed,
A glory that can never be clouded,
A light that can never be darkened,
And a life that can never die ...
Even on holidays.

For today, I will stick to my food plan; I will depend on God to guide my way; and I will seek support & encouragement from my fellow OAs.