My Spirit Animal

Most people who have a spirit animal or totem choose and exotic animal that is wise, or crafty, or awe inspiring. Not me.

I have come to believe (really just play with the idea) that my sprit animal is a mallard duck. Male, of course, I do love the coloring. Now I know I love penguins and puffins and condors. Penguins are graceful swimmers. The puffins, beautiful divers. The Condor, a majestic lord of the sky. The mallard is none of these things, but they trudge on none the less.

Their coloring is displayed well here.

His swimming is defined by ass in the air and not knowing any better. 

His flying is laborious, but effective. If you haven't seen them trying to take off from the water, a chaotic mixture of running, flapping like crazy and blind hope, you ain't seen nothing. 

And their landing is just a graceful, a whiplash splash down that looks more like a water crash with their engines in full reverse.

And they won't shut up when annoyed (see sounds like me).

And while they rarely look graceful, when they are comfortable and simply gliding through the water, they have a certain contentment I strive for.