April 2013 | News and Events

and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams."

When Rozanne S wrote this in 1968, it was simply the first paragraph of the OA handbook, I Put My Hand in Yours. Fast forward 45 years and we find these words have earned iconic status - a poignant affirmation known as Rozanne's Prayer, aka the OA Promise.

Even today, hearing or saying the OA Promise invokes for me a 1960s starry-eyed sentiment that makes my inner cynic twitch. Beyond our wildest dreams? Turn on the news, open a paper - and I wonder how people outside program can even find a quiet place to DREAM of love and understanding. I rarely see strength and unity celebrated on the 6 o'clock news. On certain designated holidays, yes. But what percentage do these days constitute of the whole year? Eight percent?

Yet here we are, 52 years later, with OA stronger than ever. When I'm in a meeting that chooses to use Rozanne's prayer in closing, sometimes I hear grumbling ('it 'doesn't come from the Bible so how can it be a real prayer', etc). Yet I don't hear grumbling about the concept. Peer pressure to focus up? Perhaps. Yet if I can IMAGINE a place full of hope, strength, unity, love and understanding, then maybe I can FIND it. After all, who could imagine the strength of a little crocus, or a downy baby bunny, emerging alive, soft, and gorgeous, from a hole in the snow. Yet year after year, this same miracle comes to life from darkness. The season turns, and the world is new.

So for today, I put my hand in yours.  - Michelle H, Tiverton