From the Chair
Hello My March Fellows –
March always gets me excited for spring and the renewal of life. The flowers start getting ready to bud, the animals start venturing out more and more, the weather starts to feel like hope is in the air. I take longer strides, deeper breaths and close my eyes more to allow the sunshine on my face. I often feel closer to my Higher Power during these spring months. It is all about the renewal of nature and life that makes me feel closer. Everywhere I turn, there is a sign that HP is there, waiting for me to seek Him. I recently read how the sun doesn’t shine in just one spot and that my HP can be that big, I love that idea.
Speaking of renewal, the intergroup renewal process is still underway, starting with the Mid-Hudson Member Survey. 25 little questions can truly help change intergroup and what service needs to be provided to the members and the meetings. Some of you may have received the online survey through email and I encourage you all to do it that way. We are also going from meeting to meeting with a paper version. Jeanette, our loyal webservant, has offered to input the paper survey data into the electronic survey. Let’s try and save her hand and eyesight by doing the electronic version instead.
Our March intergroup meeting will be held immediately following the Saturday morning Poughkeepsie meeting. I encourage you all to come to the morning meeting at 9:30am and then stay for the intergroup meeting from 10:30-12. The location of both meetings is St. John’s Lutheran Church Room 118, 55 Wilbur Blvd, Poughkeepsie NY. I hope to see you all there!
“OA doesn’t tell us we have to believe in God—only that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” — The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, p. 13
My concept of a Higher Power has changed, just as I have changed. I am not the same person I once was. I had worshipped God in church, so it was easy to return to that setting. However, after a few years, I realized that I no longer believed God was big enough to restore me to sanity. He worked in the lives of everyone else, but not in mine. My sponsor said I was suffering from “tiny God syndrome.” She suggested that I borrow her Higher Power while I was trying to define my own. If that was not big enough, I could take all the Higher Powers from everyone at our big meeting. It reminded me of taking little pieces of clay from here and there until I had a big pile. Every time I thought of something big, I came up with something bigger. Finally, I realized that when the sun shines, it doesn’t shine in just one spot, and that maybe God’s love could be that big. - Overeaters Anonymous, Voices of Recovery, February 22
Wishing you all a March filled with renewal.
Your Chair,
Lori J.
