Hey gang (new normal intro? Meh.),

Happy post-Christmas. Happy, sad, melancholic, there’s something about December 26th that always seems to hit me in the feels, and these can go all sorts of ways. Today, perhaps with a deeper understanding of God in all things and in Time than every before, I feel better equipped to carry on hope, joy, and gratitude than I ever have. No evangelism, just the sheer splendor of the world around us, seen from whatever path – religion, running, meditation, bubble baths – floats the boat.

This being said, I am increasingly realizing the deep importance of honest fellowship in my life. A men’s circle has been an important bedrock for me for some months now, but I now present the newest player in my rhythm: Overeaters Anonymous (OA)

As you could guess, highly intelligent reader, it’s a 12-step program…on something that can be coined a process addiction, just as sex, work, and spending money may be.

I’ve written about my tricky relationship with food in the past. #peanutbutter. But joining OA has been a game-changer in helping me recognize my compulsive tendencies around it, be it restricting, binging, or…yeah, that about covers it for me. <– in jest, because my addiction to eating certain ways, or to certain foods (I’m looking at you, sugar and simple carbs) can and has ruled my life, regardless of how I may look or how it manifests. Just the fact that certain acts and foods are on the table, so to speak, makes things all the harder. More to come on this.

OA has served as a looking-eye glass into a different sort of lifestyle, one I think all 12-step programs encourage. It involves building an army, a web of supportive people in one’s life, in and out of the program, to support one’s choice of abstaining from their drug of choice (mine being certain foods/food habits), one day at a time.

I haven’t been perfect since being in program. Far from it, actually. I’ve been willful, sullen, in denial, angry, manic, and peaceful about my old habits, sometimes all at once, as I’ve struggled to face the truth about what has not served me.

But, for now, I’ll keep coming back to the program: the in-person and virtual meetings, the surprisingly engaging literature, the relationships so open to being built with others, and other tools besides. The journey has begun, mark my words, and I want to share my honest experience for the sake of sifting the wisdom out of the shit, and sharing the discovered Gold.

Until next time.