Congrats to dragonuangel and rkmiabamer for winning something in the drawing! I’ll be holding another one next week on Wednesday, so as always, send me an email if you’re interested.
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Yesterday there were about twenty Turkey Vultures, aka Cathartes Aura, roosting across the street in a big dead tree. Unfortunately, by the time I remembered to take a picture, an hour had passed and quite a few of them had departed.
The bad thing about this picture is that you get no sense at all of how large these birds really are. As in, large enough to carry off a small child. Or a poodle. Not that vultures would do that, though you can bet I looked them up to see what the deal is. The first link I found said this:
The vulture is a very powerful totem. Its cycle of power is year-round. If you have a Vulture as a spirit guide or totem, it can show you how to use energy powerfully and efficiently. It glides effortlessly on the winds, soaring high but using little energy. It symbolized the distribution of energy so that gravity (or cares) do not weigh it down. The Vulture uses air currents against the pull of gravity. It does not use its own energy, but uses the energies of the Earth instead…
In Greek mythology, the Vulture is the descendant of the Griffin. It was a very Buddhist-like, Zen-like symbol of the non-dual oneness of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, good and evil, guardian and avenger. The Vulture is the avenger of nature spirits. Ancient Assyrians believed the Vulture was, like Nagarjuna’s middle way, Sunyata, the encompassing overall non-separated union between the day and night. Ironically, regardless of the less than good image the vulture is typically granted by most, think about—unlike the needs of nearly all other living creatures, vultures do not kill. Their prey either dies or something else kills it.
All very comforting and spiritual, but I still think it’s weird they were shooting the breeze over there. I don’t see hide nor feather of them now, which makes me think they were waiting for something. I can’t imagine it was anything that involved the living. Or maybe they’re just waiting for me to keel over while weeding.
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Here’s a cool article on the rights of being superhuman.
And via PBW, there is a Q&A session/workshop taking place this weekend with some fantastic paranormal romance authors such as Lynn Viehl, JR Ward, and others. Go here for more information.