Why I'm voting No 1 galah in the bird of the year poll | Tracy Sorensen

My riotous childhood confidante has, in adulthood, become my talisman. All I have to do is follow the pink and grey trail

" Vote here in the Guardian/BirdLife Australia 2019 bird of the year poll

One night I had a strange dream. I dreamed the pet pink and grey galah of my childhood gently lifted the little gate on her cage with her beak, and hopped out on to the ground. Her clipped wing forgotten or perhaps no longer relevant, she soared straight up into the subtropical sky over Carnarvon, the tiny town almost 1,000km north of Perth where I grew up, and flew in a giant circle overhead. On her way around, she dipped down to tear a petal from a hibiscus shrub and, with petal in beak, gave me a nod, as if to say thank you, or perhaps just "see you later", because once she'd made a full circle she flew off into the distance, into freedom.

I woke up in a soulful glow suggesting creativity and alchemy.