White-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) feed on a carcass of a wildebeest in Masai Mara National Park, Kenya (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several times a week I walk, at least a 2 mile stretch, sometimes more.  Today was my “lunch walk” so I only had 30 minutes and was determined to make it count.

I was clipping along at a rapid pace, my body already on melt down alert from the blistering FL sun, when I smelled it.

It was a rotten, dead animal smell that caused me to pick up my pace even more.   This was partly because of the horrid smell and partly because of the large assemblage of hideous vultures beside the road gawking at me as if I were after their dinner.

As I continued around the bend, happy to be rid of the stench and the stares, I began to think about buzzards.  We all know that they are scavengers.  What I didn’t know that I read today and found interesting is that a group of vultures is sometimes called a wake.  Very fitting!  Another note is that although they rarely attach healthy animals, they may kill the wounded or the sick, which brings me to my point and what I was pondering during the remainder of my walk.

Have you ever noticed that some people are like vultures, looming over a mess, waiting for their opportunity to run and congregate to observe catastrophe close up, feasting on bad news and then regurgitating it (like the vultures do to feed young or when scared) wherever they go.  It smells even worse by then, I imagine.

Sometimes these people take a weak or injured individual and try to finish them off just to satisfy their appetite.  They thrive on rottenness and death, walk all through it, supping until they are full and there is nothing left.

When someone is weak or downtrodden, they need encouragement and when every situation around them reeks, they don’t need more gossip and exposure.

They need understanding, love and a true friend; someone to defend them when they can barely stand beneath the weight of despair.

I am so blessed to have friends like that and a God who watches over His children.  One of my prayers today is that I will never feast on someone else’s pain, but instead that I will come alongside and share the burden.