Lifeline is
created from OA members' letters. Monthly topics are suggestions.
You may write about any subject important to your recovery from
compulsive overeating. Send your letters to Lifeline,
PO Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 or email.
Features
- Stepping Out, Service with a Smile,
Living Traditions and Taking the Spiritual Path continue.
- Newcomers Corner: Speaking from
the Trenches gives newcomers a place to share their OA
experiences and concerns.
- OA Around the World presents
a brief history of OA in a country or area; current information
on the number of NSBs, IGs and groups; significant accomplishments;
and two or three short pieces from local members. Please
send your history today!
- Generally Speaking (general
OA topics) and How OA Changed My Life continue.
- Main Attraction focuses on public
information and attraction.
Departments
- Ask-It Basket, Datebook, For
Discussion and Web Links continue.
- Share It and World Service
Notes run only if sufficient material is available.
Other Materials
Lifeline accepts
letters, artwork and photos (no faces, please) for publication.
Credit lines and rights to submitted work apply equally to articles,
artwork and photos. Submitted materials are not returned. Lifeline may
edit articles and crop photos. Lifeline promotes "unity
with diversity" regarding the race, nationality, gender,
age, physical challenges and sexuality of its writers.
Please submit articles at least three and a
half months prior to the first day of the month of publication.
Deadlines appear in parentheses next to topics. Indicate the topic
and month for which the article is intended. Typed letters by mail,
fax or e-mail are preferred. Letters must contain the author’s
name and address, even if the author wishes to remain anonymous
in print. Thank you.
2008
Topics
JANUARY
How OA Changed My Life (9/15/07)
What is your before- and after-OA story?
FEBRUARY
Sexuality and Body Image and Majority
of One: One Disease and Lifeline (10/15/07)
Write to one of these topics. (1) Have you struggled
with sexuality or body-image issues? How have you overcome them? (2) Have
you ever felt “different” in OA? What experiences have you had
with diversity and unity in OA? How can minorities in OA find strength in OA
unity? What made you realize it was not the differences but the disease and
recovery that were important? (3) Share why Lifeline is
important to your program.
MARCH/APRIL
A Bicycle Built for Recovery: Abstinent Members, Service
Bodies, Strong Meetings, Steps, Traditions and Concepts (11/15/07)
 Write
to one of these topics. (1) How do the spokes in the wheel of the
OA bicycle help OA move forward? (2) How has a single
Step, Tradition or Service Concept influenced your recovery? (3)
What made you realize abstinence comes first? Does abstinence
rub off? (4) How
has service above the group level changed you? How does it benefit
OA? (5) How did your group create a
strong meeting? Do you believe abstinent members make strong meetings?
How could your meeting be stronger?
MAY
Sharing Our Experience: Who Knows You’re in OA? and If
I Could Tell a Still-Suffering Compulsive Eater Just One Thing… (1/15/08)
Who knows you’re in OA? Why don’t you share
this information? In what ways could you share your program that
you’re not doing now? How do you carry the message without
fear or shame? Or, answer this question in 300 words or less: “If
I could tell a still-suffering compulsive eater just one thing,
it would be … ”
JUNE
Physical Recovery: Its Place in My Program and Meeting
the Membership Requirement: A Desire to Stop Eating Compulsively
(2/15/08)
What place does physical recovery have in your program and life?
When and how did you realize going to meetings and giving service
were not enough — that
a desire to stop eating compulsively was the key? How did Tradition Three help
you recover from relapse?
JULY
Generally Speaking (3/15/08)
Write on the OA topic of your choice.
AUGUST
Longtimers Share: Then, Now and Not Yet (4/15/08)
What were you like, how did you recover, and why do you stay?
How have you dealt with life changes? How has OA changed over
the years? How do you picture the Fellowship in 10 years?
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
Step Principles: What Are They and How Do We Practice
Them? (5/15/08)
Why are the Step Principles important to your program? Or write
about one Step Principle that has made a difference in your life.
Principles: honesty, hope, faith, courage, integrity, willingness,
humility, self-discipline, love, perseverance, spiritual awareness,
service.
NOVEMBER
Finding Self-Esteem and Accepting
Reality: Being a Compulsive Eater and Holiday
Preparations (7/15/08)
What was your self-image when you joined OA? How did you find self-esteem and
change your self-image? How has this affected your life? Does self-esteem mean
something different to you now than before OA? Is acceptance part of self-esteem?
What made you finally accept that you were a compulsive eater? How do you prepare
for abstinent holidays?
DECEMBER
Abstinence and Personality
Conflicts: How We Grow From Them and Holiday
Strategies (8/15/08)
What is the most important thing you did to achieve abstinence and then maintain
it? How has your abstinence changed with life changes, such as aging, illness,
family life, career, vacations or other challenges? How do abstinence, holidays
and relationships influence one another? How do you deal with conflict in family
relationships? How have you used the Steps or Traditions to cope with difficult
people? How do you maintain abstinence over the holidays? How do you cope with
the holidays in other ways?
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