PACE Newsletter

August 2019 

Positive Action Changes Everything

From The Chair

 

Hello All -

 

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer.

 

This is the time of year when we see fewer people attending meetings because there are so many different social occasions going on. Life on life's terms, that is what is said in meetings.

 

The beauty of the OA program is that it allows us to FINALLY have a life worth living. Before OA and working these steps, I stayed home and I isolated and I ate, and I ate, and I ate. We come together in fellowship, sometimes in small and sometimes in large groups....but we come TOGETHER.

 

We are a community and so is our intergroup. We might never have known each other without having this disease and finding recovery in these rooms, but I am grateful every day for each and every one of you.

 

I welcome all of you to come to our next intergroup meeting on September 21 at 198 Main St, Cornwall, NY 12518. There is a regular OA meeting from 10-11:30, then stay and have lunch, (bring your own) and the intergroup meeting starts at noon.

 

Together we get better, together we can make a difference.

 

Hope to see you all soon!

 

OA MHIG info

Summer Minithon

 

 Willing

to be

Willing

 

Sunday, August 18, 2019

 

 
Click Here for Details

OA Region 6 Info

2019 Convention

is oh so close to us in

White Plains, NY

October 18- 20

 
Link to Convention Info

OA WSO Info

 

2019 Holiday 

Phone Marathons

for 712+

Phone Intergroup

 
Click here for Phone Details
Click here to subscribe to the OA World Service Organization News Bulletin - At the bottom right corner, click "News Bulletin Signup."

Step 8 - Self-Discipline

Tradition 8 - Fellowship

Step 8:  Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Admission and Prayer

 

Step Eight asks me to own up to who I am in relation to other people and myself.

 

Working with a sponsor helped. I returned to OA after a relapse, during which I quickly gained 40 pounds (18 kg). After a suicidal crisis, I realized I would slowly eat myself to death if I continued. I received the gift of desperation and was willing to go to any length to recover from this disease. I asked someone who had what I wanted to sponsor me.

 

After Step Seven, my sponsor suggested I review my Fourth Step to look for anyone I had harmed. I wrote down their names and the reasons why I needed to make amends to them. The first half of Step Eight was an opportunity to name those I had harmed and why. It didn’t matter if someone had harmed me; I only needed to identify the people I had harmed. I recently considered several people I used to sponsor. It wasn’t easy to admit I had been controlling and arrogant towards them. When I did admit I had harmed these people, relief filled my heart.

 

I needed to put my own name on the list—“we have also damaged ourselves with our self-destructive thinking, eating, and living habits” (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous,p. 69). I damaged my body by compulsively overeating, starving, overexercising, and denying my excess weight. I lived in isolation, fear, self-pity, and resentment. I wrote my name on the list, although I had no idea how I would make amends to myself. That was part of Step Nine, and I wasn’t there yet.

 

The second half of Step Eight involved becoming willing to make amends to those I had harmed. “It might help us to remember that our purpose in doing step eight is not to judge others, but to learn attitudes of mercy and forgiveness” (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, p. 69). My sponsor suggested I pray for anyone I was unwilling to forgive. I prayed for each person to have health, prosperity, and joy, although I still felt angry. After praying for one particular person every day for a month, I felt a wave of forgiveness flow over me. The God of my understanding helped me see this person as a lovable child of God, who, just like me, was doing one’s best with what had been given.

 

I prayed for each person on my Step Eight list and asked God to forgive me too. Then I was ready for Step Nine.

 

— Edited and reprinted from The Transformation newsletter, Central Ohio Intergroup, August 2011

Tradition 8:  Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

Labor of Love

 

I remember when I was new to OA. I sat with my first sponsor, going over my journaling on Step One. It took quite a bit of time, and I couldn’t believe how patiently my sponsor sat there, listening.

She wasn’t giving advice. Periodically she shared her experience, strength, and hope, but mostly, she just offered the gift of understanding. I was amazed that I wasn’t paying her! She accepted me even though we had only known each other for a short while. She even said I was helping her.

 

The gift of sponsorship is so powerful because it is given freely—no strings attached. Now I get to pass it on and do the same for others. I always enjoy seeing my sponsees’ faces when I tell them they are actually helping me more than I am helping them.

 

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous tells me “In OA, we learn to give our loving support to others freely, without trying to advise people or change them; nor do we look to others to work our program for us” (p. 175). Service is its own reward. Even if we are experts (counselors, ministers, dietitians, authors) outside the rooms of OA, we only share our experience, strength, and hope. Even someone who has long-term abstinence is not an OA expert; experience has shown that everyone suffers in the long run when recovery “gurus” exist.

 

OA may (and does) employ special workers. These employees help manage the business aspect of OA when the job is too big for volunteers. These employees may or may not be members. Effective workers are appreciated because they help OA grow stronger, but their duties are entirely business-related.

 

No member is ever paid for Twelve Step service. Just as the OA Twelve and Twelve says, “When we keep OA’s eighth tradition, we discover a beautiful spirit of caring service . . . we can each turn to the one next to us and say truthfully from the heart, ‘I put my hand in yours because I care’” (p. 176).

 

— Edited and reprinted from OA Today newsletter, St. Louis Bi-State Area Intergroup, August 2014

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Thank You! ...to All Our 

Contributors!

 

July donations:

 

  • Beacon - Monday noon
  • Cornwall - Saturday morning 

 

 

Your 7th tradition donations make all this possible.

 
Click here to contribute !

 

Please forward this newsletter to all your OA friends.

 

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Mid-Hudson Intergroup OA