Hopelessly Devoted To You

Can't you just hear Olivia singing.........?  You can't?  Then you are obviously either too old or too young to have your heart strings plucked by the message in this song.

Every day, from the chair in my office, I see pure hopeless devotion at work.  And, I marvel again at the lessons to be learned from God's creatures as they go about just living their lives.

I've watched Miss Dovie building her nest in the saddle of my cherry tree, depositing her precious cargo, and then settling in for what has proven to be a very wild ride.  Her timing could have been better, but something tells me it just wan not hers to choose.

Since taking up residence, she has endured gale force winds, pounding hail, and buckets of rainfall.

And yet...........she sits.

She remains ever vigilant, ever patient, and I assume ever hopeful of a positive outcome for her tenacity.

She bears her challenge silently and will tolerate a noisy human invading her space to "check" on her, which it seems I MUST do, even though there is nothing I can do to help her.

To further emphasize the depth of her devotion, it occurs to me....not her....that she will never enjoy the fruit of her labors.  She will never know her grandchildren, never receive a Mother's Day card, and never have a houseful of happy kids coming home for a holiday visit.

Instead, her lot in life is a whole lot of work with little reward at the end.  Once she has worked her beak to the bone feeding and protecting those nestlings, they will one day go careening out of the nest, never to be heard from again.

I was pretty put out with the good Mister who left her sitting all alone in the elements but he turns up now and again bringing her nourishment while she is nest bound.  Good job Mr. D on living up to your job as head of the household.  You, will also never know the joyous gifts of ugly neckties and needless golfing notions.  But for a beat.....you also are hopelessly devoted.

Watching nature teaches us a lot about things we would do well to learn.  In nature, creatures don't pander to and enable their offspring until they render them helpless.  Instead, they are all about successfully raising up some "chillun" to be self-sufficient productive member of their society.

Sadly, they lose a few along the way and in that regard I am quite happy to be human.  But I confess that I love the thought of doing one's parenting job so well that you can enjoy you kids, instead of continuing to have to pull them along with you through life.

Maybe nature's instincts are to equip their young for survival because they never know how long they will be around to be responsible for those "kids."

When the dovelets fledge the parents will spend a final few days carefully patrolling the area where they teeter on branches or squat on the ground.  And each day, the babies grow stronger, more confident, and eager to see what else is out there.

Soon the need for their parents is gone and they bob along in the grass looking for their own tidbits, cocking their heads at a sound and peering at you with those bright gentle eyes.  And, for some, next year they might decide that saddle in the cherry tree looks like a great place to do it all over again.

Since it is said that Mourning Doves mate for life I can't think of a more fitting example in nature of hopelessly devoted.  Can you?