Do What You Cannot

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. ~ Pablo Picasso

“But I’m too weak, I’ll never make it.”
Don’t worry; we have all thought and said the same thing.
We’ve heard these words so often in Overeaters Anonymous
it feels like home when we do, but like many dearly loved words
they loose their meaning when we actually try to live
day by day by day working the Steps, living a life of Recovery.
Certainly there’s comfort in their being so familiar,
in the fact they found their way into the standard format
as representative not just how one lonely person sitting there
may feel but how everybody feels, if not right then,
some of the time. And to hear the old-timers share,
to learn there’s still struggle, there are still things to learn…
can feel comfortable. But too often the comfort is in giving way,
in believing, “But I’m too weak, I’ll never make it.”
But the hope comes when we acknowledge the fear,
the inadequacy, the feeling of panic at the very idea,
in hearing further, The amazing secret to the success
of this program is just that: weakness.
It is weakness, not strength, that binds us to each other
and to a higher power and somehow gives us an ability
to do what we cannot do alone.
Welcome to Recovery, welcome home, welcome to learning
how to do that which you cannot do.

Invitation