Hi Everyone!

Thank you for your participation and sharing during our meeting this week.

The telephone conference numbers for our group are:

Telephone conference number: (712) 775-7031 Access Code: 397-681-282

Playback recording number is: (712) 775-7029 Access Code: 397-681-282#

Playback reference number: 6

Since we do not have a lot of storage available on the telephone conference line, recordings through the phone line will only be available for 1 week.

Here is the link for the MP3 from our meeting this past week:

To listen to a meeting that is older than 1 week, please go to the Recordings 2016 tab of the blog to get access to the link to the media fire account.

As a reminder, our group takes place on Sunday mornings at 5:30 AM EST.

Please join us as we “trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.” (AA Big Book 164:3)

This week, we continued our discussion on abstinence and surrender.

We had a very lively discussion on “What is abstinence in OA?”

We read up to page 9 in the Abstinence Presentation Handout.

Notes that I took during our meeting:

We discussed that will power will not bless us with the gift of abstinence. We have to surrender to our food plan.

We talked about the importance of using all the tools, which provide us with the discipline and structure necessary to surrender to a food plan and work a program of recovery.

We read pages  100 – 102 out of the AA Big Book which discussed the importance of staying in fit spiritual condition to that we can be of maximum service to God and other people.

“Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do… Do not think of what you will get out the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it. Our job now is to be at the place where we can be of maximum helpfulness to others.”

We discussed surrendering to a food plan, healthy eating behaviors and body image and weight.

Next week, we will continue reading the pamphlet and then read the other documents that were listed in an earlier post.

The documents we referencing are:

• abstinence presentation
• twelfth step within format january 2013
• the process of abstinence is surrender

Due to the fluid nature of the internet, I am unable to post on the blog any links to the documents directly. Please go directly to the OA World Service website if you would like to see them.

Some people were not able to access the YouTube video by Bill D. on Surrender. Here is a link to the MP3 that I uploaded onto our media fire account.

I am so grateful to be sharing this journey with all of you!

Thank you all for sharing your experience, strength and hope.

“Together we can do what we can never do alone.”

In love and service,

Shira