I was in the biggest airport in Europe. After waiting for eight long and uncertain hours, I was taken off the plane, along with all of the other passengers. There were long lines of angry people waiting to talk to airline employees who could only give vague answers and work hard to calm their customers. The board showed a flight schedule of 60 flights, almost all of them marked with an uncanny “cancelled,” due to an unexpected airline strike. There were people, suitcases, announcements, signs, noise, and in the midst of all this, me—a recovering food addict who had missed a connecting flight to the FA convention.

My mind was racing. Thank God I had packed dinner, but where was I going to get my abstinent meals for the unexpected 24 hour layover ahead of me? Where was I going to sleep? I had no clue, but I did have a program, so my first step was to get into a rest room and pray, releasing a few tears of stress and fear. Please God, help me in my hour of need. As I exited, I felt calm, and I called an FA member who lived in a nearby town. First, she directed me to a supermarket at the other end of this maze of glass, steel, shining tiles, signs and announcements. After 90 minutes, I returned to my terminal with a bag full of groceries. The whole airport smelled of the Chinese, Italian, and Thai food from the food court. I sat down, gave thanks, and gratefully ate my abstinent meal that a feeling in my gut had urged me to prepare shortly before I left home.

With calm and gratitude, I carried my grocery bag all the way back to the airline counter to get my hotel voucher. I talked to everyone with politeness and patience; no screaming, no complaining, no putting pressure on the airport employees who worked very hard to cope with the chaotic situation.

I was exhausted when I entered my hotel room, but I unpacked my groceries and prepared three abstinent meals for the following day. As I did not bring a knife, I had to use a set of plastic utensils I had picked up at the salad bar in the grocery store. I ask God for help and eyeballed my quantities since I had no access to my scale. With a feeling of honesty and purity, I closed my three containers with neatly cut abstinent meals inside. Sure, canned vegetables were not a gourmet food. But they were abstinent, and that made them delicious for me.

There were times in my life where I could not travel at all due to anxiety and the obsession to eat. I remember sitting on a train many years ago. I had to get out and get something to eat because I could not bear the craving for food any longer. On another occasion, because of my anxiety, I interrupted a train ride on my way to visit a friend in another town and returned back home. Now, however, after practicing 13 years of FA discipline, working the Twelve Steps in an AWOL (A Way of Life), and experiencing growth within the fellowship, I was able to travel to another continent, get stuck in an airport due to a strike, and stay abstinent and calm.

I still thank God for getting me to the United States safely. The convention experience was worth the ordeal of the trip. The combination of practicing the tools, working the Twelve Steps every day, and making FA a top priority have made a grateful recovering food addict out of a fear-ridden, angry, and sick person. And one more time I realize that there is nothing—absolutely nothing—that cannot be worked out with God’s help.