The Day I Held a Wild Vulture…

When Fear Had Feathers

In 2012.. I was running on spiritual fumes.. living and working down in Florida.. driving an 18-wheeler and hauling orange juice concentrate.. Most days I’d head down to the seaports.. wait for the massive container ships from Brazil.. then hook to a bulk tank and run it to one of the orange juice factories scattered across the state..

One day.. I was rolling down a long.. deserted.. country road in the middle of nowhere when something big.. black.. and winged shot across my path and smacked the front of my truck with violent force..

It happened so fast I couldn’t tell what kind of bird it was.. I just prayed it wasn’t a bald eagle—there were plenty of them in that area.. Whatever it was.. I knew it had to be dead.. No way anything could survive the hit I felt.. My anxiety climbed as I pulled over and walked to the front of the truck.. preparing myself for the worst..

But when I looked down.. lodged in an open section near the bottom of the grille.. was a huge black vulture—one of the largest I’d ever seen..
And it was still alive..

For a few moments.. I just stood there.. trying to process what I was seeing.. The bird was incredibly calm and strangely quiet.. It looked right at me with an expression I can only describe as.. “Please help me…”

There was no way I was going to grab this thing bare-handed.. I was certain it would lash out with its beak.. So I found a big stick on the side of the road and tried to pry it loose.. No luck.. The bird was wedged tight.. and part of it was pressed against the radiator—which was extremely hot.. I knew time wasn’t on its side..

I kept trying with one hand on the stick and one on a wing.. but it wasn’t working.. I was starting to make it worse..

Eventually.. I realized the truth..
I was going to have to pick this thing up with both hands..

Fear hit me hard…
But I also knew I didn’t have a choice..

So I took a breath.. Said a small prayer..
Had myself a quiet ellipsis moment haha..
Then reached in..

I put both hands on the bird..
To my surprise.. it stayed gentle—completely calm.. completely trusting.. Its eyes were locked on me.. almost talking.. It knew I was trying to help.. As my fear faded.. a strange confidence grew.. I grabbed all over its body.. trying to find the angle to free it.. At one point.. I even had my hands around its neck and head.. carefully working it loose..

Finally.. with one good pull.. the vulture came free..

I lifted it high in my hands.. expecting it to explode into flight—but it didn’t..
It simply rested there…

It had just survived something that should have killed it.. and it needed a moment to breathe.. The amazing thing was… it wasn’t even injured.. not a broken wing.. not even a wobble.. nothing…

We stood there together for about a minute—me holding it.. it staring at me..
No fear on either side..
Just this strange wild peace…

Then it looked at me one last time.. as if to say thank you.. turned.. and flew…

I climbed back into my truck and drove on.. replaying the moment in my mind.. I still can’t believe it survived the impact.. Not only survived it—walked away completely fine…

And then the old saying hit me..
“Tough as an old buzzard…”

Now I understand where that phrase came from… those birds are built like tanks..
And on that day.. something wild trusted me — enough to rest in my hands… an indelible memory…

…….↓⚡→🛻⇂⇂⇂→🪶😨→🤲†🦅→🤲🤝→↑🦅✨’……….↓~→|⇂⇂⇂→v?→/†^→/↢→↑^*’

Wow… i just googled ‘tough as an old buzzard.’ to see how it came about.. I knew none of this…

(Where it comes from) The phrase “tough as an old buzzard” grew out of american frontier language in the 1800s.. early 1900s.. People on ranches.. homesteads.. and in desert regions watched buzzards (vultures) survive things almost nothing else could survive.. blistering heat.. drought.. storms.. rotten food.. injuries.. and just plain rough living.. Why a buzzard specifically? Because vultures/buzzards are famously hard to kill…………
Cowboys and farmers noticed that even old.. beat-up buzzards still lived incredibly long and stayed sharp.. Their survival was legendary…

It all makes sense to me now 😁

And I relate……….. I’m also famously hard to kill 😁.. but that’s another story for another day… 😎`