The baby flamingo at the Albuquerque BioPark is slowly starting to grow his pink feathers! He was hatched on June 28, 2024. He joined the flock out in the public part of the park in October. He was just a small grey boy back in October. He was a 3 feet tall, but still much smaller than the adult flamingos of the flock.

I’ve enjoyed watching him grow this winter. He’s changed a lot from the end of October to the end of February. He’s still not as tall as the adults, but he’s starting to replace some of his grey feathers with new pink feathers. According to the zoo news, it will take about three years for him to reach maturity. Until then, he’s eating lots of shellfish (the source of a flamingo’s pink coloring) and growing.

I love his mottled half-and-half feathers. He’s still kind of a baby, but he’s growing into his adult self. It just takes time. It’s good for me to remember that growth and change take time. You don’t get all of your bright colors overnight, especially when you start out entirely grey. This is the sort of metaphor that appeals to me. 😉

We all grow and change over time. Just like a flamingo, we are changed by our environment. We don’t literally change color because of what we eat, but how we choose to live does have an effect on us. We get to choose what we feed into our lives – our actions, the people around us, our healthy choices, the beauty we seek out, love and joy, the art and media we consume – all of this feeds us.

So remember this. If you’re stuck in a grey space, it’s possible to do something to bring more color into your life. Try not to be too impatient with yourself as you wait for the big changes to happen. You are growing and changing every day, especially if you’re working on making progress. You can be as flamboyant as a flamingo someday if you want to be. I know I will be, and you can too. It just takes time.