
~ FROM OUR ODAT COMMITTEE ~
Dear ODAT/TRG Members,
The ODAT loops have been peacefully doing what they do best ...
providing a safe place for recovery with a special/specific emphasis. Overall,
the loops are growing. Some, of course, have many letters a day while
others are more quiet.
If you're not aware of the loops geared to a particular area of
recovery, take a look at the TRG website:
http://www.therecoverygroup.org/odat/index.html
There are choices from AAODAT all the way through Weight Loss
Surgery ODAT and everything in between. We'd love to have you join us.
With love,
Sande
ODAT Committee Chairperson

~ DANNY'S CORNER ~
~ 12 TRADITIONS ~
Dear God,
Good morning, rain and all. It sounds so comforting on the window
pane. Reminds me of an Eddie Rabbit Song about rain, which is now blowing
in the window.....oops!! That's fixed. Why is it that I have this need in
me to rise up for unpopular causes even in program? Have I not been in enough
controversies over the last 24 years? You tell me what to do with
what I can only see as tradition breaks and others see as "I can say whatever I
want".
This wonderful gift You have given us brings with it the
responsibility to protect and pass it on as given. Oh sure, we can gussie-up
what we say as our life experience and still bring topics to our fellows that
can be used improperly, not intentionally, but improper just the same.
I would say that the traditions are not merely suggestions to be ignored at
our whim, but rules by which we protect the Twelve Steps and our way of life.
If I'm out of line here, You will let me know as You have in the past.
I wonder if I'll ever be as right as I am wrong. The scale is really tilted.
Meanwhile, I can use Your help with me today as I'm going to pick up my
OA/AA pal and goof away the day: lunch, a movie and lotsa good conversation.
You know I tend to screw up when things are going good. Please watch over
and take good care of my family, friends, fellow sufferers, the general population,
and the folks I don't like. Allow me to know and do Your will today. Thanks, Big Guy!
And Why Not?
Danny

~ THE GOLDEN KEY ~
Dear Friends on the Journey,
My name is Mari, and I have a loathsome disease that has plagued me for a
lifetime. It affects every area of my being and has accounted for the very
best and the very worst of me. Most of you who are reading this, share this
disease with me and I am grateful for a support system with you in it.
I'm not at all sure what my life would be like without you. Part of my
program is to journal my thoughts and feelings and I appreciate your
letting me share them with you.
"Beginners often get startling results at the first time of trying, for all
that is absolutely essential is to have an open mind, and sufficient faith to
try the experiment. Apart from that you may hold any views on religion ... or none.
As for the actual method of working, like all fundamental things, it is
simplicity itself. All that you have to do is this: STOP THINKING ABOUT
THE DIFFICULTY, WHATEVER IT IS, AND THINK ABOUT GOD INSTEAD. This is the complete
rule, and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will presently
disappear. It makes no difference what kind of trouble it is. It may be a big thing
or a little thing ... but whatever it is, just stop thinking about it, and
think of God instead. That is all you have to do."
. . . . Emmet Fox ... From the Golden Key
Many years ago my sponsor gave me a little golden book with the above words.
The book was eight pages long and I wasn't ready to hear those words then. In
fact I had never heard of Emmet Fox and to make matters even worse, I wasn't
that interested in knowing him or who he was. What's more the words didn't
make a great deal of sense to me then. I put the book away.
Fast forward several years when I picked up the book again. I was dealing
with some unscrupulous people in my life and they were affecting my serenity
deeply. I wondered what the Golden Key would say about them and I began to
read Emmet Fox ... and take him seriously this time.
"In order to 'Golden Key'
a troublesome person or a difficult situation, think, "Now I am going to
'Golden Key' John, or Mary, or that threatened danger" ... then proceed to
drive all thought of John, or Mary, or the danger right out of your mind,
replacing it by the thought of God."
Shades of the Big Book? Isn't page 552 about resentments saying the very same
thing?
We all have troubles. We all have people in our life who make us miserable.
Emotional and physical pain is no stranger to many of us. Try Golden Keying
some of these issues ... you may be very surprised.
"Do not try to think out in advance what the solution of your difficulty will
probably turn out to be. ... Leave the question of ways and means strictly to God.
You want to get out of your difficulty - that is sufficient. You do your half
and God will never fail to do His."
@-}-}-}------
Love in recovery,
Mari