The Flamingo that followed me

Dear Avery,

Did you know that the flamingo is a pretty bad ass animal? It’s more than the pink tropical bird most people associate it with. It’s much more.

Did you know it can drink boiling hot water, but can also live in below freezing conditions? Stick that bird anywhere, and it will survive. See what I mean? Such a bad ass.

Why does this matter?

Well, you know how I love signs from the universe? One day I was listening to all these fun facts about this extraordinary bird from a podcast called Every Little Thing (a funky little podcast about incredibly random things of this world — always leaves you with a smile — so of course I’d dig it), on my way to a museum with friend and her daughter. After the 25 min podcast, I parked my car… and couldn’t not think about how underestimated the flamingo really is. Why don’t people pay attention to these guys? While walking up to the museum, my friend’s daughter spotted me… ran full sprint towards me to say hello. Gave me a big hug, and showed me her dress: flamingo print dress. Hmmm. What a funny happenstance. Little did I know, this was the first of many flamingo appearances to come.

For the next two weeks, I saw them E V E R Y W H E R E:

1. Random Social media posts.
2. The name of restaurant next to a place I ran an errand (which I would not have noticed had the large FLOCK of elderly people in the entrance not moved faster in the parking lot, allowing me to wait patiently for them to cross, giving me the time to recognize the name of the restaurant).
3. Since this is the summer of pool floats — a huge flamingo was the first float I saw while vacationing with our family in Lake Tahoe (a blog post on that trip to come!). I spotted at least 4 of them over the week’s span.
4. I continued to see them in Tahoe: on men’s t-shirts, towels, and I even saw one hanging from a gondola wire. Nothing else hanging from this wire but a stuffed animal flamingo<<< whhhhhhhhhhhy?!?

You get the point. It followed me. I told my parents all about this mysterious circumstance, and my dad told me to research the symbolism of it. At first, I was hesitant — kind of like a psychic reading — I didn’t want to know what was to come.  But then, after continuing to see them, I looked it up. I came across the symbolism of having a flamingo visit you in a dream. And THIS is what it came back with:

 

I’ve been going through a hard stage in life, and this hit me square in the face.

“Let go of the negatives to build a positive future.”

Sometimes, we just have to let go, so we can begin again. As hard as it is, sometimes we just have to.

So I sent this to your Mom. She responded immediately with positive support. And then a little while later, she sent me this and suggested I get it tattooed. As a symbol of letting go, starting anew, and looking forward.

Once I get over the inherent fear of permanent tattoos, it’s the best option I’ve seen in a very long time for one. Look at the elegance. The peacefulness. And the breath-taking power of letting go.

Aves — find the symbol that encourages you to let go of things that are not meant for you. Or better yet, it may just find you.

With love,

Aunt Megs