My beautiful flamingo

I’ve never been specially fond of flamingos… until recently.

Soon after my amputation, a friend of mine was walking in a park in Geneva. Seeing a bunch of pink flamingos, she had been struck by the perfect balance they were able to keep even on one leg only. She was thinking of me and immediately sent me a picture of them.

I was in my hospital bed and it made me smile, which was already a very good thing in the moments I was passing through.

But in addition, it lighted something in me, and I adopted the pink flamingo as my totem for my time of recovery. I loved this idea of balance, and I was seeing some affinities between me and this strange bird, feeling myself very strange with the new body I needed to get accustomed to. I loved too the colored and funny aspect of the bird, and indeed I was needing some joy and colors in this moment of my life, to help me to face the daily challenges of my new condition.

Some weeks later, my wife asked me if I had any idea of the meaning of this bird, on a symbolical level (how good to be married with a true Yogini and beautiful Urban Priestess and psychotherapist !) …I had no idea and googled 'pink flamingo symbolism.'

And guess what: the pink flamingo is symbolically associated with the mythical phoenix, the flaming bird that is reborn from the ashes. This gave me not only joy, but hope, and this hope I welcome with gratitude and share with you.

For there is one last thing that I want to stress about flamingos: they usually live in tribes. On the front-page of this website you can see them together, some on one leg, some on two. And I learned as never before how much I needed the support from my fellow human beings, as I was receiving messages and good energies from so many precious people. It has been and still is a true and precious help.