Nature Notice: The Vulture: Unbothered, Necessary & Misunderstood

Nature Notice

This week, I came across two vultures.

Back to back.

Both were doing exactly the same thing:

Eating a dead squirrel from the side of the road.

And I’ll be honest…

Vultures look mean. 😂

They have that stare.

That bald head.

That posture.

And they absolutely do not seem concerned about whether you’re watching them.

They don’t care.

They’re going to eat.

They’re going to do their job.

And they’re going to carry on with their day.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much these creatures have to teach us.

Because vultures aren’t the villains they sometimes appear to be.

They’re the clean-up crews.

They consume what has already died and help return it to the ecosystem.

They don’t create the death.

They simply work with what is already there.

And they do it without apology.

Without shame.

Without guilt.

Without worrying about whether someone thinks they’re beautiful.

They know what they’re here to do.

And maybe there’s something powerful in that.

How often do we worry about being misunderstood?

How often do we change ourselves because someone doesn’t like the way we look, speak, move, or exist?

How often do we spend energy trying to make ourselves more acceptable?

The vulture doesn’t.

It simply says:

This is my role.

And gets to work.

Maybe today’s lesson isn’t that we should become vultures. 😂

Maybe it’s that we can become a little less concerned with being understood by everyone…

And a little more comfortable with knowing who we are and what we’re here to do.

And perhaps there’s another lesson hiding underneath all of that.

Sometimes something has to die before it can become nourishment for something new.

Old patterns.

Old identities.

Old expectations.

Old ways of living.

Nature doesn’t waste much.

It transforms.

The vulture reminds us that even what looks unpleasant can have a purpose.

So the next time you see one…

Don’t just look away.

Notice.

Because even the creatures we find unsettling may have something to teach us.

Nature has something to teach us today.

The question is… are we paying attention?