Today's Readings - Voices of Recovery

"How does a full-grown human learn to express exuberance? Perhaps it is not possible to retrieve what was once lost, but this program of recovery comes close. The more I practice being 'as a child,' especially when I take Steps Three and Eleven, the more my spirit is seized with an untamed joy demanding expression." As an adult, I took almost everything seriously. I did not have much of a sense of humor. I neither told nor appreciated jokes. Prior to working the Twelve-Step Program of recovery in Overeaters Anonymous, I was terminally serious. That can really eat one down with depression, sadness, frustration, and selfishness. The Fourth through Ninth Steps led me to scoop out the garbage of my past from my spirit. Once that was gone, there was room for light - my spirit along with my Higher Power. I was able to capture the exuberance in life that was lost while I had practice my disease of compulsive overeating. Now I am able to practice life with health. Does that mean that I am exuberant all the time? Of course not. I know I have a fatal disease; however, today I have a sense of humor, and my spirit is free to live with exuberance.