Tradition 9

Tradition 9: OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

I was thinking about this tradition this morning. The tradition says we ought never be organized. Hmm.... well, I'm in the right place! LOL I haven't been organized for a long time. When I look back, I think the reason is because I was so unorganized within. I was too busy taking care of everyone else's problems that I let myself go. (Sound familiar?) I wanted to solve the worlds problems. Then I began to look around my house and where I worked. Everywhere I was there was disorganization. I am not sure who said it, but I read somewhere that how we feel within shows on the outside without us realizing it. I was a mess within and so was my home! Today I find myself wanting to do better as far as organization goes. I want a clean house. However, I still haven't arrived there... YET!

What does all that have to do with Tradition 9? Think about it. When you entered the doors of OA, were you organized? Did you have it all together? I sure didn't! I was a big fat mess. There is no way anyone would have listened to me. At least that is what I thought. Truth is, I was listened to, encouraged, and told to keep coming back. My thought is that OA doesn't have to be organized as far as the newcomer coming and sharings within the group. However, any meeting needs some organization, a leader, to keep us all on track. If we didn't have someone there to do that, then we would get off on a tangent and try to solve their problems too. That isn't why we are here! We are here to share who we are, what happened, and how we became who we are today. Without some organization in the groups, our meetings probably won't grow. We need to come ready to share, to lead if needed, or just to participate however we can. As we work together... we grow.

Like Rosanne said "l put my hand in yours, and TOGETHER we can do what we could never do alone...."

May your day be blessed with many blessings from HP.

Hugs...Cindy

PS. Check out OA's new website! It is awesome. They have updated it and added lots of new features. The address is still the same... www.oa.org