Love and Service

Love and service.
These are, I sense, one and the same.
Love, without service, is illusory.
Service, without love, is cold.

True service always works both ways.
I cannot give service without receiving it.
I cannot receive service without giving it.

Love and service are a circuit that connects two or more people.
The love and service flow between and among us,
and together we do what we could never do alone.
We are thus granted the gifts of belonging, of usefulness,
of fellowship, of common ground,
and in some blessed cases, of friendship.

And these same qualities pertain in my life with my wife,
my life with my son,
and my life with my daughter.

Love and service.
When I approach my relationships with these actions and attitudes,
I feel a newfound sense of serenity,
something I never knew in the throes of active food addiction.

Thanks be to our Fellowship
and the OA-HOW structured meeting format
and the solution we share to our shared disease.

— John-Eric