OA Footnotes Blog

  I had a very dramatic awakening when I was 24 years old, but it didn’t enable me to let go of my eating disorder, which at that time was manifesting primarily as bulimia and anorexia.  

Rickicisms! Do you remember those? The late, great Rick D., an esteemed OA long-timer published his 70 program musings in the Foothill Intergroup newsletter over (at least) the last 10 years. At the October 26th, 2020 Intergroup meeting, the intergroup board voted to begin running a monthly Rickicisms on the the OA Footnotes blog. So, hold on to your hats people, we bring you...Rickicisms.

I went to the Pasadena noon Thursday meeting today on Zoom.   As so often happens, I received a multitude of “God Shots” from listening and participating. It’s a writing meeting, and so I ended up with several lines of focused writing.   Today’s subject was fear, and the prompt was this: What action do I take when I become conscious of fear’s presence?

When I began working with my present sponsor, she had me set up a morning routine which included three pages of free-association writing every day. In the interim, I've come to appreciate starting my day with my morning pages.

What do these words mean to me: “We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.”   --  A Vision for You, Alcoholic Anonymous Big Book page 164 What a beautiful sentence, so inclusive. When I came into program I felt excluded on so many levels in my life. I never received an invitation to the ‘Skinny Club,’   the ‘Eat Whenever and Whatever I Wanted to Eat Club,’   the ‘In Crowd, Always Successful Club,’   the ‘No Problems were Unsurmountable Club,’ the ‘I Want to Be Your Friend Club,’ the ‘Get Picked First on a Team Club,’ and so on. I was in the ‘Yo-Yo Diet Club,’ the ‘Weight Loss Failure Club,’ the ‘Hearing Friends, Family & Doctors say ‘it would be so much better if you lost weight’ Club,’ etc. etc. “We shall be with you in the fellowship of the Spirit.” What did I hear – you wanted to be my friend even if we never met or per chance meet, you would consider me a member of the fellowship and part o

I try to (on a daily basis) see that I have a relationship with my Higher Power (HP).  Yester day, while volunteering at a coronavirus test-site, my HP gave me a new way of staying in 'conscious contact' and not going negative. At several points while volunteering I would notice negative feelings about or towards myself or others. This was because of fear or because of frustration that things we ren't  going my way. I thought for a second and my HP revealed to me that when these 'negative' moments occur, that is really my HP saying "Hi" to me and advising me that my HP is there and present.  So, instead of being scared, fearful, angry, frustrated, etc., I get to remember that my HP is using my current perceived negative situation to remind me that it's time to say "hello" to HIM. He's knocking on the door and I need to let Him in.  Having learned this, I then decided to pray for - instead of mentally attacking - people at the test-site or