So, I am leading my first Overeaters Anonymous retreat. I don’t recall if I wrote about this before. I was approached to do this service back in October of last year. I was hesitant. I had never been to a retreat much less lead one. The retreat chairs trusted me, said I had what they wanted. I asked around, checked with my sponsor and said yes. Today was the first session. We did an ice breaker. Seemed to go well.

I did a basic qualification which included my short version of what I was like, what happened to change me and what I’m like now:

What I was like: Fat, angry and in charge.

What happened to change me: A spiritual experience

What I’m like now: Thin, accepting and in touch.

For the ice breaker. We had our 44 participants count off in two groups of 22 and then mated the matching numbers. Ones with ones. Twos with twos. You get it. They each then had about 3 minutes to share their story with their partner. Then, one pair at a time, they each introduced their partner. We took a break halfway through.

We had a secretary keep note of words that captured what people were like and what they are like now. Two columns. One before, one after. I get to summarize it later.

We closed with a guided meditation lead by another member. It was very nice, and this from a man who does not meditate in any conventional sense of the word. It was nice.

I was quite anxious at the start. I feel much better now. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…