PACE Newsletter

March 2019 

Positive Action Changes Everything

A Note From the Chair

 

Hello All!

 

The days are getting longer and soon spring will be upon us. That means our Spring Retreat will be happening in beautiful Beacon. A walk through the 12 steps in a weekend is shaping up to be a not only informative but a truly awakening weekend. Rooms are going fast and day passes are still available. Just a reminder that registration is due in FULL by March 30th.  

 

There are also plans to make some changes to the website so keep checking back to have a look.

 

Please do service by reminding those at your group level to subscribe to our monthly newsletter filled with news, reading and writing for the monthly step, personal stories, and more!

 

Wishing you all a lovely and abstinent spring!

 

Your Chair,

Lori J.

 
Click here for Open Service Positions

MHIG info

Weekly Meeting Reminder

Port Ewen Sunday 

 

Starts back up

on 

4/7/19

 Mid-Hudson Intergroup

Spring Retreat 

A Weekend Delve

Into the New 12&12
 

A weekend retreat for members of
Overeaters Anonymous


May 17-19, 2019
St. Lawrence Friary
Beacon, NY 12508

 

Balance due by March 30th!

 
Registration Flyer

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

St. Patrick's Day

 
Click Here for Details
Click here to read the OA World Service Organization News Bulletin | March 2019

Step 3 - Faith

Tradition 3 - Identity

Step Three - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.

Step 3: Power Surge

 

At my home meeting, a member shared a story about wanting a specific food and not being able to stop herself from going to buy it. While she was putting on her coat, she said a prayer. “God, if you want me to not eat this, you’re going to have to help me.” When she arrived at the shop, there was a sign on the door: “Closed—no electricity.”

 

Hearing this story had an immediate and profound effect on me. I realized I’d never completely surrendered my food. I write it down, call it into my sponsor, weigh and measure it, but I’ve never given it to God.

 

Maybe that’s why I still struggle when I enter the grocery store? Or why the newest fad diet always grabs my attention? Could it be the reason why I want something to eat when my spouse is snacking in the evening?

 

After leaving the meeting, while riding home with another member, I realized I didn’t want to struggle anymore. I was ready to surrender my food to God. So I visualized holding my food in my hands, lifting both hands up above my head, and saying, “Here, God, I give you my food.”

 

What happened next was amazing. I felt as if a huge weight was physically lifted from my shoulders. I felt 10 pounds (5 kg) lighter. More important, I stopped struggling. The food stopped calling out to me. From the beginning, I had the willingness to do what was necessary. It was surrender that made the difference.

 

— Norinne M., Fort Myers, Florida USA

Lifeline - Posted on March 10, 2016

Tradition Three - The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

Tradition 3: Desire and Beyond

 

Many a member has said that if the requirements for membership in OA were more stringent than “a desire to stop eating compulsively,” they probably wouldn’t have felt qualified to be at a meeting.

 

Unfortunately, this unique requirement—the only requirement in our entire Fellowship—is often used to avoid being “made” to do anything else that makes somebody uncomfortable, like having a food plan, being accountable to a sponsor, working the Steps, or realizing that abstinence comes from continuous action, not just a desire.

 

A desire is the beginning of a process, but a desire alone will not accomplish very much in OA. The Third Tradition ensures that anyone who wants to can attend an OA meeting, but I don’t believe it was intended to be the standard to which one aspires to attain abstinence, or to effectively fulfill our primary purpose, or to insure the continuing wellness of our beloved Fellowship.

 

For six years, I slipped and slid. I’d get some abstinence, then become complacent and backslide. I’d “tighten my food up,” only to renege on my new commitments. I was alternately attracted to people with solid abstinence and repelled by them as rigid perfectionists who sang the shrill song, “I don’t eat no matter what.” They must have been cheating or lying, I thought, since nobody could possibly get and stay abstinent. Such was the state of my willingness to act upon my feeble desire.

 

My desire stopped being the answer once I realized that recovery was about taking suggestions, commitment, principles, and personal integrity. Until I understood at a deep personal level that I was different from people who ate what they wanted without hating themselves, my problem continued unabated. When I accepted the spiritual consequences of my eating, and the totality of my absorption in it, I found the willingness to convert desire into action and began to make progress. Today, after more than ten years of continuous abstinence, I sing the praises of physical recovery and service as a formula for keeping a willing OA member moving forward in recovery.

 

OA became an international entity because people sublimated their egos, undertook tasks that forced them outside their comfort zones, and endured extreme emotional challenges. Without diligent, daily effort, our recovery and OA’s credibility will suffer. Undertaking a difficult action to attain or maintain abstinence is a desire to be a living example of the best that this program has to offer.

 

— Neil R., Baltimore, Maryland USA

​​​​​​LifeLine - Posted on March 10, 2016

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Thank You! ...to All Our Contributors!

 

A big Thank You to the following groups:

 

  • New Paltz
  • Poughkeepsie

 

 

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