Not Your Favorite Breakfast

Rounding the bend recently I came upon three familiar hunched over shapes breakfasting over the remains of a fresh roadkill.  Vultures--nature's undertakers.  We've all seen them going about their grisly business and probably looked the other way.  These were so caught up in their work I had to stop the car and wait for them to reluctantly flap away.  I see vultures often now on the road or circling in the sky . The increase in development around this end of the lake has brought more roadside casualties with it. In the city I used to see  mostly opossum, the occasional squirrel. Here I've seen those, as well as raccoon, beaver, owls, hawks, coyote, rabbit, deer and most recently, skunk. It saddens me.

 Despite our modern distaste for their essential role in the balance of nature, vultures have a symbolism that would surprise most people. For obvious reasons they represent purification and the cycle of death and rebirth. To  encounter them in a significant way was considered confirmation of a new relationship between the volatile aspects of life and the fixed eternal energies of the cosmic world. But they also represented a promise that the suffering at hand was temporary and necessary even if not understood because a higher purpose was at work.  To come upon them at their work was to witness something mysterious and holy.

We have all had vulture moments in our own lives; those times when we have grisly but necessary work to do. Perhaps when we had to fire an employee, cope with the ravages of disease, face an unexplainable loss or speak the truth when everyone would rather it not be acknowledged. There are other grisly moments less public when we turn inward and  own up to the less than attractive parts of ourselves we would rather overlook, or face the truth about our own natures. These are only a few of the life changing moments that despite being unsavory  to us are ultimately about paving the way for change to create an opportunity for a new way of being. We may not come to our tasks as zealously as the vulture greets his breakfast on the road, but our understanding of the need for the vulture's work is just as essential. Living is a constant process of death and renewal. All our lives we will be asked to clean away the used up, unnecessary, completed parts we shed in our growth towards maturity, wisdom, compassion and love. Each part we shed was valuable in its own way to the whole of our lives. To see life's experiences in this way is to honor the existence of a greater purpose at  work.  When we nourish ourselves with what we have learned and try to live our lives differently we move closer to this great mystery. That is nature's way and God's.  It is an important  lesson for us. We will all one day be used up, but no matter what we believe awaits us, if the vulture has been an honored friend, we can step into this last wonder, grateful for all that has come to us and also thankful our lives have left nourishment for those who follow.