The last two weeks have been a huge opportunity for me to grow along spiritual lines. As always, if I just look, I can see how everything is interconnected, and teaching me new spiritual lessons.

It all started when I went kayaking with a friend in recovery. His sponsor had told him to look for the spiritual. At one point during our trip, he spotted some birds in a tree and asked what they were. At first I thought they were crows. When they flew off we knew they were turkey vultures. We watched them take off and eventually catch the thermal currents and soar. It was actually a beautiful sight!

All of a sudden my friend said, “Have you ever thought about how nature takes care of its messes?” He explained how nature has a system. That no matter how big or small the mess, buzzards can find it and clean it up. From thousands of feet up in the air, buzzards somehow smell dead, rotting, decaying messes. They swoop down and clean it up. Then they are off to seek out the next mess to clean up. What a spiritual lesson. If God has created the buzzards to clean up natures’ messes, why can’t he do the same for me?

A few days later I get a text from my wife. She wanted to “talk.” The words that always bring fear into my gut. I asked her for a preview of what we were going to talk about. She told me that she wanted to talk about our emotional intimacy. She wanted more than I was giving. Still more fear! I don’t know how to do that.

But then I remembered the lesson of the buzzards. I am in awe at how God has taken the mess I have made of my marriage and is cleaning it up. After all the betrayals, all the affairs, lies and hurts I have caused my wife, she wants to connect with me again. After our conversation, she even texted and said she wanted to take divorce and separation off the table in any further conversations. What an amazing spiritual lesson. What an amazing thing recovery and the 12 Steps have done in my life. I think my new spirit animal is going to be the buzzard!