Hola Reader,

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This week, I tap my archives again. I've been juggling the course I'm co-teaching, work, 33 weeks of pregnancy, a possible case of COVID (it's not COVID!), and a broad spectrum of accompanying emotions, so most of my writing was in my journal this past week. So here's one from a few months back, with a nonetheless timeless lesson from Mother Nature.

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Reflection

Read on the Web

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On a hike to our local river this weekend, my daughter and I came across several vulture feathers. On the way home our appearance startled a great volt of vultures from their roosts to the sky. At least 50 of these misunderstood birds soared above us, at varying altitudes, and their presence was not lost on me.

Vultures, often reviled in western cultures as harbingers of death, play an integral role in eco-systems and carry a rich symbolism.

The scientific name of the family of vultures - Cathartidae -comes from cathartes, Greek for "purifier". The Andean Condor, widely recognized as a powerful spiritual symbol throughout South America, belongs to the same family. For the Pueblo Indians, vultures are a symbol of purification and are able to restore harmony that has been broken.

Both the taxonomy and the folklore reflect vultures' critical role in their eco-systems. As scavengers with incredible resistance to bacterial infection, they do the "dirty work" of cleaning up carcasses and thus preventing the spread of disease.

As my daughter and I watched the myriad birds dip and glide through the air, I was awed by another incredible feature of these magnificent raptors. They are skilled at riding thermals, rarely flapping their wings as they gracefully spiral upwards. This gives the impression that they are being flown as opposed to actively flying. [1]

Perhaps it was this magical flight that inspired the ancient Greeks to view vultures as descendants of the mythical Griffin? To the Greeks, this creature represented the intersection of dualities such as heaven and earth, good and evil. Thus the vulture was interpreted as one of the guardians of the mysteries of life and death. Just as it soars the unseen, it was understood to navigate the unknown.

Costa Rica is home to over 800 species of birds, many of them stunningly beautiful. Yet, since moving here, the majestic soaring of black and turkey vultures in the skies above our rural community has inspired awe in me perhaps more than any other bird. Their constant companionship has also sparked my curiosity. So it is that I know so much about these odd-looking creatures. I have come to deeply revere them and honor the medicine which they share.

In almost 3 years, I have never encountered so many vultures as I did on Saturday afternoon. Perhaps it was my heightened awareness, or the offering of the feathers paired with such a potent showing, but this time their messages rang crystal clear. It is my deep belief that Mother Earth has slowed us down so that we might hear her voice, and these voiceless birds acted as her messengers that afternoon.

In a Zoom-based dance ceremony the same morning as I saw the birds, the facilitator said in an aching way: "We are all suffering, and there is something beautiful about that". We are all uncomfortable, confronted, and raw these days. It is expressed in different ways, but at our core, we are all living a fundamental experience of facing things we would rather not.

Vultures always represent these same uncomfortable truths: of the necessity of dealing with death, of waiting patiently and trusting in what cannot be seen. Of the delicate veil that separates life from death. In this moment, we have finally come to the limit of our distractions and avoidances. No more can we shun the uncomfortable reality of our delicate web of being.

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Audio-Visual Landscape

There's something about the cinematic horns and eerie hook in Montoya's track Umza that keeps me coming back. Montoya's bio reads similarly to many of my favorite artists: classical training, electronic production, and global and folkloric influences fuse to create an ancient future sound that is both universal and personal.

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Dot Connecting

A whopping 1/3 of the world's food is wasted...rotting in the fields, tossed out by stores and restaurants because it's past its "best by" date, or thrown in the trash after a picky kid decided not to finish dinner (to be fair, this last one is actually the smallest segment of waste so no sense launching into the "hungry kids in Africa" diatribe).

What can we do about it? Well in Europe there are initiatives such as the French law that fines grocery stores up to $4,500 if they throw away edible food. Now, the Too Good To Go App is angling to link consumers directly to the "usual suspects" of food waste: supermarkets and restaurants. In a win-win approach, they are creating a marketplace where consumers can score discounted food and businesses can lower their environmental impact, waste management bills, and losses.

The App is run by a B Corp that is also actively engaging policymakers and educators in addition to food businesses and consumers. Check out their mission and see if the App is active in your area (currently operating in North America and Europe!)

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In Service,

Kate

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