Flame

On the medicine of flamingo, and why your full audacious self is not a luxury but a necessity. Bring your disco ball!

Nona Jordan, 2025, Portrait of a Flamingo in colored pencil

The Last Thing I Expected

We had just finished traversing the Namib Desert, a beautifully stark landscape, and I was looking forward to getting to our destination, Walvis Bay. As we got off the main road and drove into town, I was taken aback. Walvis Bay looked post-apocalyptic. The streets were covered in sand, buildings were worn, and the industrial equipment of the port dominated the landscape. The streets were devoid of life, the town eaten alive by the salt.

In this strange and unfriendly place, after dinner, we ended up on a path that hugged the bay itself. I was disappointed, but determined to make the best of it. After all, we were back in Southern Africa.

As we walked around the bend of the bay, the sun hung low in the sky as sunset approached. In the distance, I saw some kind of bird in the water. Big birds, actually. As we got closer, I saw there were hundreds of them. As we got even closer, I saw they were doing this funny little dance before sticking their heads into the water to eat whatever they had churned up.

Are these… flamingos?

Hundreds of flamingos dotted the bay.

I may have screamed with delight — you’ll have to ask Erick and Clara — but I do know I rushed to find a place I could get down to the water’s edge so I could get in the water and get closer to this bird I had never seen in real life. Because, listen, the kitschy lawn ornaments don’t count.

Flamingo, your medicine is welcome here.

Flamingos are the disco ball of birds, amIright?

Seeing a flamboyance of flamingos is a surprise in this setting — the long, elegant legs, that graceful, colorful body a welcome contrast to the sand-worn exteriors of Walvis Bay. My utter delight at seeing these iconic beauties made them the perfect exotic birds for such a run-down place. Bringing color, elegance, and a silly dance as the antidote to such a stark place.

The very word flamingo comes from the Latin for flame — named for the fiery feathers that capture attention wherever they go. The fire-like color comes from what they eat: algae and brine shrimp absorbed into the feathers themselves. Flamingo literally becomes her own brilliance from the inside out.

Flamingo embodies authenticity and audacious self-expression, even in bleak circumstances.

The Myth of Toning It Down

I have been steered away from technicolor self-expression my whole life - either by family or later my own internal censorship. I know I’m not alone.

In my adult life, I have run toward it and backed away, too many times to count. You would think by fifty-five years of age, I would have figured it out, but here we are. I still need the reminder that who I am in my fullness is what is needed now.

Flamingo is that reminder. No matter how bleak the situation or the surroundings, there is always space for the unexpected. That being your full, audacious self is not only personally delightful, but it reminds others of what is possible.

To love what I love on purpose and out loud is necessary medicine, for me and for others.

In these uncertain times, it’s easy to think that dimming your light and joy is the right response. That somehow making yourself smaller is more appropriate, more sensitive, more aware of the gravity of things.

I beg to differ.

Being fully yourself is always important. In uncertain times, even more so. This doesn’t mean you don’t care or you ignore the truth of life around you. But the bling, the joy, the delight are just as real — and make the rest bearable.

Contemplate Flamingo for Yourself

If flamingo has danced into your awareness, you are being asked to consider where you have been making yourself smaller and more acceptable for others’ consumption.

Where have you dimmed your light? Where have you held back your color, your delight, your particular brand of audacity because you weren’t sure the world could (or would) hold it?

Flamingo says: the world needs your audacious self now more than ever.

Make space for the unexpected. Love what you love on purpose and out loud. Dance your unique dance and invite others to dance with you.

You are not too much.

Let your aliveness light up the dance floor of life.

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Speaking of showing up in full color:

Let’s gather.

Paid subscribers of The Wild Journey Home are invited to the inaugural First Sunday Sanctuary, a monthly live yoga nidra with active imagination. A practice of deep, nourishing rest that opens a doorway beyond the predictive mind to remember and clarify who you are and who you wish to be in the world.

You will leave with more clarity and a felt sense of your own guides and allies lighting the way.

Our first gathering is Sunday, August 2nd @ 8 am Pacific/ 11 am Eastern. As a paid subscriber, you will be invited to register to get the Zoom link. I’ll see you there.