Spring

Song of Solomon 2:12

The Voice (VOICE)

¹² The flowers are unfolding in the fields; the birds are warming up their songs,
    The cooing of the turtledove is heard throughout the land.

In 2008 we flew into Cape Town for our first visit to South Africa in almost 30 years. Long time friend Lincoln met us at the airport, and we spent the first couple nights with his family. The first morning I awoke to kuk-COORRRRR-uk repeated over and over again. The cooing of the ring necked dove sounded something like a concerned query “How’s father?” repeated endlessly.

Immediately, a thousand memories swept over me, memories of awaking in the early hours of a fresh spring Cape morning. After a brief breakfast of Weetbix and fresh, non-homogenized Jersey cow milk rich with a thick layer of cream, I would walk up the slopes of Helderberg Mountain on which we lived. A brightly colored green and yellow pair of Bokmakieries would be calling each other in a loud and musical “bok-bok” and an immediate response of “makierie.” They repeated this often just to express their love for each other. 

At my feet and into the dense bushes of the fynbos that stretched all around me, often impenetrable but hid a wealth of beautiful flowers unrivaled in variety anywhere else on earth. The magnificent protea blossoms attracted the sugarbird iridescent sunbirds anxious for a deep draught of nectar.

Occasionally we would startle a huge family of guinea fowl chicks that would dash away in a dozen different directions and suddenly disappear as though transported into the ether by a cosmic Scotty.  An occasional duiker fled into the dense bush with our excited collie, King, in hot, noisy pursuit.

When I returned home I often had my arms full of a bouquet of watsonias and arum (calla) lilies just for Mom—a treasure of beauty.  And all these wonderful memories called up by the cooing of a dove!

Watsonias on the slopes of Helderberg Mountain 

Thank You, Lord, for the chance to grow up in a place so close to paradise.