Loose ten pounds in a week,
take off three inches by June,
weigh in each week with a loss,
shape up for the wedding/vacation/
reunion/party/next big event.
We’re a group of sprinters
ready and willing…sometimes able…
to reach the goal and win the prize.
We reach the rooms of OA
with years of experience.
And we reach the rooms
because our old life failed us,
made us miserable,
convinced us we were powerless
with unmanageable lives.

But in OA we found a set of tools
and that we weren’t in it for dashes
but for endurance events.
We found MEETINGS
where others shared our weaknesses
and newfound strengths.
We tried a PLAN OF EATING
nor for a quick fix but for a lifetime
one day at a time. Others,
those who had what we wanted,
gently led us, SPONSORING
our growth, our discoveries.
LITERATURE we read
and WRITING about it…
and everything else…
helped us understand the map.
ACTION PLANS got us up and going,
moving toward the goal
in the way that best fit us.
Picking up the TELEPHONE
to reach out to others
for many of us was a tough tool to use.
Giving SERVICE to keep OA going
and ANONYMITY to protect the program
and individual members, holding the course,
became surprisingly helpful tools.
And these nine tools make sometime sprinters
into the marathon, cross-country,
hundred-mile-pace competitors,
the long-term winners.