Once upon a time there was a girl who loved her daddy very, very much. When he died she missed him with her whole soul. 

One day, as she sat under the trees, she noticed a vulture floating through the clouds. 

“Ugly bird,” she muttered to herself.

And then another vulture rose up and joined the first one. 

When they met, they tipped their wings and dove and swooped and circled and glided. 

And the girl thought, “Well, they don’t think they’re ugly.”

And then she thought some more.

About the job the vultures do. 

About how the world would be knee deep in dead things if they weren’t around.

About how life cannot exist without death.

“To take death and rise up to the heavens,” she whispered. “Well, that’s pretty cool.”

And that thought made her feel a little better.

So now, when she sees a vulture dance across the heavens, a she no longer mutters, “Ugly bird.”

Instead, she marvels at his beauty, and whispers, “Hi, Daddy.”