“Resting,” photograph property of OntheWingofaDove.com (2018)
”Oh that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” Psalm 55:6
Soon to come…
It’s been a while since I’ve written…
I took a much needed rest.
Soon to come just for you,
New essays and poems…all my very best!
Peace and love,
Felecia
OntheWingofaDove.com
”Living life…beautifully!”
Linda Celeste Sims in Ailvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater‘s “Cry.” Photograph by Paul Kolnik
“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘He will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'” Revelation 7:17
(A poem dedicated to my dad, Edward Hyford Myers)
When evening fall it’s hard to see what’s just ahead;
Our vision is clouded as dusk turns into night.
A heaviness forms and hovers over us;
And we feel we can no longer fight.
Death seems like the ultimate end;
For in it seemingly there is no hope.
The heart stops beating, the last breath is drawn;
and those left behind struggle to cope.
But, as the night moves on and the dawn draws near,
A lightness breaks and encircles the earth.
A newness of life fills the hearts of all beings;
and joy comes in the morning full of hope as with the newness of birth.
we needn’t be troubled by yesterday’s fears,
The brightness of day blossoms like a budding flower.
For death has been conquered, everlasting life abounds.
Joy comes in the morning for those walking in the Lord’s power.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
Over these past couple of weeks since my father’s passing, my heart has been filled with many powerful emotions. During the times, when I remember how he suffered during his illness, I feel a heaviness as though night has filtered through and darkened my mind. It saddens my heart to know that I can no longer hear his gentle voice; feel his love for me through his wisdom, guidance and advice; or gaze upon his kind face while feeling so fortunate that my own bears such a close resemblance to his. But then, when I think of that moment when he quietly passed on from this life, I can’t help but feel a sense of hope. For I know that for daddy, joy truly did come in the morning, and he will forever more experience the brilliance of a new day dawning.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, our beings transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord,who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18
Edward Hyford Myers, September 10, 1930 – May 20, 2016
I am grateful to the Lord for blessing my life with such a precious father. Today and as long as I live, I will rejoice and celebrate his life. Rest in peace daddy, I love you with all my heart…until we meet again.
Peace and love,
Felecia
Photograph courtesy of Lisa Richter
“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.” Henry Ward Beecher
I often wonder what goes on around us unseen and unspoken. My thoughts have taken me to some unfamiliar places lately – sometimes it is as though the Lord has removed a veil that I had not been able to peer beyond before. What He has shown me are things that were always there… I am just understanding them in a whole new light.
The photograph taken by my dear friend Lisa at Presque Isle State Park in our home town, inspired this poem. In a way, I believe the photograph depicts more of what my heart wants to say than my words do…
When we cannot see with our eyes,
What God is doing behind the scenes,
We can feel that something is happening,
But only in His timing will it be revealed.
When we cannot see
When days are murky like a rain-threatened sky;
Our vision is clouded by our daily affairs,
But when the skies brighten by the promise of the sun’s light,
Then we see with a clarity and joy…nothing is hidden and all is out in the open.
When we cannot see
We must be still and listen, taking in all that is around us.
Sometimes we observe more than what we’ve wanted;
And other times it is as though we are completely blind.
Rest assured, when we seek what God has placed before us,
We will see not with our eyes, but with our hearts…
And we will be filled.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9
Peace and love,
Felecia
Photograph courtesy of Martin Watson
“I’ve been longing to travel lately; to just get away and experience something new, something I’ve never gotten the chance to do before. Life is an open book, and there are so many pages in mine that have yet to be written…” Felecia R. Weber, OntheWingofaDove.com
I don’t want to go back,
I only want to move forward.
Let the past be the past;
It has already been lived.
My future awaits me,
The pages are being filled day by day.
I have many roads yet to travel,
Some are winding, some are straight.
There have been times when my steps haven’t led me where I’ve wanted to go.
But I press on, for I am determined to reach my destination.
Each turn, each path that beckons me, I’ll test to prove whether it be true.
Know this, whatever happens between now an the end of my journey…
Will be the best it’s ever been.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
May the roads that you have yet to travel lead you to the fullness of life that you seek…and as you seek it, may you discover that your fullness comes from the Lord.
Peace and love,
Felecia
“By His Blood” (Detail), colored pencil drawing by Felecia R. Weber, OntheWingofaDove.com
“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:44
His blood shed at Gethsemane
What it demonstrated to me,
Not the loneliness wrought by betrayal,
Nor the tortuous suffering at Calvary.
His blood shed at Gethsemane
It revealed something much deeper than that,
For there is no greater suffering, no other loss that can compare.
Yet, because of God’s deep love for us, His only Son’s life He did not spare.
His blood shed at Gethsemane
Such a heavy weight Christ carried in knowing what was to be;
The agony that stood before Him; the decision that He alone did make.
I praise Him and eternally thank Him, for the gift of salvation He made possible for you and me.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’…” Matthew 26:36-46
It always touches my heart intently when I think of the grief and agony that Jesus suffered that night in the garden called Gethsemane. Can you imagine it? He not only had to deal with the fact that He had already been so wrongly betrayed, but He also knew that those followers of whom He had lead and loved so intimately and for so long, appeared only to have a vague understanding of what this incredible night was to hold for them in the immediate future. His love for them and the entire undeserving world was so great, yet He knew that what He must do would be more than He, at least in His humanness, seemingly could bear.
But wait, there is more…the thing that caused His greatest anguish is something that we cannot even comprehend. For Jesus knew that in order to make that deep love for all of us who have ever lived, and those who will come after us, be real and to free us in a way that nothing else could do…He had to make a decision that would lead Him to a place where only He could go.
I imagine we’ve all experienced, to some degree, the destitution of feeling completely alone. With nowhere , or no one to turn to. A place where no light shines and where all hope seems to have slipped through our fingers. Where when we cry out for help, all we hear is silence, or worse yet, only the echo of our own tear-strained voice. A place that is void of all that is good, and the vibrancy of life and joy. Now try to fathom that feeling to be a million times greater and real. Even then we cannot come close to where Jesus was to go. For He would be completely separated from God the Father and God would turn His back on His beloved Son. There would be no response from God to Jesus’ cries to Him. His desperate tears would fall silently and God would not hear.
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39
For me, His blood shed at Gethsemane symbolizes the level of intensity of how much Jesus’ love is for us. That, although He pleaded with God the Father to take that utterly bitter cup from Him, He chose to take it on, for our sake. Indeed, there is no greater love than that.
May you take the time today, Maundy Thursday, to ponder the decision that Jesus made on that agonizing night He spent in the garden called Gethsemane, and may it move you to take a step of faith and place your trust, your life in Him, who is the Light and the Life.
Peace and love,
Felecia
“No Ordinary Rose,” Photograph by Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” Mother Theresa
There is a hunger within us that is not easily satisfied.
Sometimes we don’t even know it’s there,
For so deeply inside of us doth it reside.
Ah, but when it gnaws on us, and takes our breath away,
We’ve no choice but to face it, for a hunger so fierce, we cannot betray.
There is a hunger within us, it has no voice, nor a face,
But the heaviness, the weight of it, can drag us down to a lonely place.
No, we can’t ignore it, it must be fed if we are to survive.
For it is more essential than food and water; we must have it to stay alive.
There is a hunger within us, that once fed satisfies every need, every desire.
It sustains us as though our hearts are set ablaze with an unquenchable fire.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
What do you hunger for the most? I believe that we all crave something that satisfies more deeply than food and water…and that is our need to be loved, to be cared for, to feel as though we matter. Deny it all we want, but to love and to be loved is the most basic and essential requirement that we all have. Sometimes it takes a long time to realize it, but it’s true. Just the thought of it can be scary, for I believe that there is nothing that causes more pain and joy than love. And, I suppose therein lies the beauty of it.
May you never go hungry when it comes to fulfilling your desire, your necessity for loving and being loved…and may you flourish because that hunger within you is being fully fed.
Peace and love,
Felecia
A Quote to Carry YouMarch 7, 2016
“If Nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is full, and you can give things out of that.” Frances Hodgson Burnett
On healing – Although we’ve had a very mild winter this year, it seems like cold and flu season is in full force right now. So many people in my circle have been suffering from the sniffles, coughs, and the general “blahs” that go along with it. When I think of all the medications that promise fast relief, it makes me think of how, if given the opportunity, the human body is well equipped to bring about physical healing on its own. To take that marvelous ability even deeper, I can’t help but think of how amazing God has provided for healing of the heart…and the way it, in turn illuminates our very souls.
Thankfully, I have not succumbed to the cold germs floating around in the air, but I’ve become well acquainted with ailments of the heart, and I’ve discovered that the remedy for those types of maladies cannot be bought. For me, that kind of healing begins, not when I take something to remove the discomfort of pain, rather, it happens when I give something…then I receive the healing I need.
It is so easy to get caught up with ourselves, trying to filler fix the areas of our lives that are empty or hurting. Like taking medications for fast relief of our physical discomforts, we so often try desperately to satisfy what it is that we lack deep down inside. It is not an easy task…and how we go about gratifying ourselves sometimes has the opposite effect. It seems to me that the solution is more fully attained when we forget about what we lack and focus on what we have. For it is then that we realize that what is missing from our lives doesn’t matter as much as what we have to offer to others. Then we find that we do not lack anything at all…but we have everything…to give.
The healing power of giving has certainly been demonstrated in my own life. It is true; when I concern myself with giving what I have to others, and there are so many ways that I have been blessed to do so, not only has healing happened at my heart level…it spills over into every aspect of my world. For is there really anything that we possess that is worth having if we don’t share it with those around us?
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Peace and love,
Felecia
Photograph courtesy of Martin Watson
“Sometimes life fills you with the thing that you’ve longed for the most…when you finally have it, how is it that you ever lived without it?” Felecia R. Weber
All I ever wanted;
How can I describe it with words?
You can’t capture the beautiful simplicity of a clear blue sky, and trap it inside a bottle…for it is too vast to be harnessed, it is the essence of freedom.
All I ever wanted;
What is it about finally having it that makes your life seem like someone suddenly unveiled the most exquisite painting…the kind that invites you to step right into its beckoning magnificence.
All I ever wanted;
It is an amazing thing that happens when what your heart craves is not simply a fleeting desire, not just a moment in time…rather, it is something that is so essential it becomes a part of you.
Felecia R. Weber 2016, OntheWingofaDove.com
When you receive the thing that you’ve longed for, when it unfolds before your very eyes…it shakes your world like a violent storm. Yet the calmness, the peace, the wholeness that follows, is like the freshness of a dew soaked meadow…it waters your soul, continuously.
Peace and love,
Felecia