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Reaching New Heights

Recovery in the OA program, besides teaching me how to eat, how to be abstinent, and how to be sane one day at a time, has enabled me to plan and follow through, and do things. I have climbed a mountain, something too frightening for me to consider in the old days. Four years later, I entered a new employment scene at age 60, which was even scarier.
I found OA in 1989. I have learned so much from all of the wonderful OAers I've met with and shared with, heard as speakers, and read about in Lifeline and the books of the program. Bless you all!

Before coming to OA, I penned a poem about a problem of mine: procrastination. When compared with my current outlook on life, it seems very pessimistic, even hopeless. But that was the way I had programmed myself, even using well-meaning quotes from my parents, such as "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." Of course, if I wasn't sure it was worth doing, I just didn't do it. But I had become aware, and therein lay the hope. Later, I wrote another poem called "Follow Through," which is far more upbeat. Following through is one of my personal tools, along with the wonderful OA tools this program has given to me.

In 1991, at age 56, I climbed Mt. St. Helens with several family members. Two of us made it all the way to the rim of our local volcano, visible from our home. The successful climb wasn't a spur-of-the-moment activity. It took some serious planning and preparation. Three months prior to our climb, I embarked upon a daily walking program to get myself in condition. And follow through I did! Accomplishing that climb made a huge difference in my life and in my view of myself.

Now, when my disease of compulsive overeating tries to draw me back into old life patterns, I remind myself of what it was like back then, what happened, what it is like now.
Overeaters Anonymous, thanks a million!

— Reprinted from Lifeline, March 1998, p. 15