Last night, when I was doing some general site updates, I found myself reading some of the stories of our featured parrots. My heart filled with a mix of joy and sadness, but I found myself smiling and a feeling of contentment washed over me. That's what volunteering for the World Parrot Refuge is all about.

I don't smile as much as I should, which is a shame because I'm told I have a beautiful smile, a great laugh, and a great sense of humour (albeit a little dark). I live with several physical and mental challenges, most notably chronic pain, autoimmune disease, and depression. I have done so for 17 years. I get frustrated sometimes because these things don't show on the surface, and I've learned well to hide them. Many people, some of them educated professionals, have told me "to snap out of it". A few people enquire into my past and some of the abuse and trauma I've suffered over the years, then cast a knowing eye at me and say "resolve that hurt and you will be healed". A few others, beloved friends and heart family just stay in the moment with me and say, "I understand".

I guess I connect with the parrots of the World Parrot Refuge because they know exactly where I am. They don't have to know the specifics, the cause and effect, they simply "are" in the moment. In any moment, they can be warm and loving, or they can strike out in fear with the burdens of past hurts. People misunderstand parrots, thinking they are mere pets or lower animals. The term "bird brain" is associated with a being of lower intelligence. How unfair that is, when they are so much like us, with all our joys and sorrows, our triumphs and our hurts. You only have to walk through the Special Needs Unit to see a snapshot of us as we really are: sometimes playful and mischievous, striking out in hurt, singing raucously, crying with pain, then flying as though our heart will break open with contentment.

I can't spend as much time with the parrots as I would like. I tire easily, and standing on the floor of the refuge causes me much pain after any great length of time. Sometimes my lungs hurt from my autoimmune disease, or my head and body is in the grips of immense pain. When I can make it to be among them, I marvel at how much alike we are, and when I am priviledged enough to have one snuggle close to me, ready to share its love and its being with me, I feel my heart glow with a great contentment.

Sometimes I berate myself that I can't do more... I push myself and I fall short. I strive, then realize I have to try again another day. I sometimes have to do what I can, even if it doesn't seem enough. I realize now that this is what the parrots teach us. To do our best to be ourselves, to be where we are, to reach out when we can, to replace as much of that hurt as we can with the love, care and attention we have inside of us - even if it's just to stand near and say, "I understand".

What I love about working for the parrots is the feeling that arrives sometimes, like it did last night. I'm doing the best I can do. I love, I am loved, I have hurts and pains, but sometimes that contentment fills me and I soar above, like I did so many years ago before the traumas and pains. I think that's what the parrots must feel like sometimes. That thought makes me smile again.

Jane Waterman
Volunteer Webmaster

Please click on the thumbnails below to learn how you can help some special birds have a home for life through our "Virtual Adoption" program! More stories coming soon!

Birds who are now partly sponsored, thank you!

Birds who are now fully sponsored, thank you!

"This is, in a word, a great place and these miraculous creatures deserve no less, but few places can deliver it this well. It is, indeed, 'world class'."

– Stewart Metz (author and Director of the Indonesian Parrot Project), after his visit at the Grand Opening of the Refuge on August 13, 2005.

"The World Parrot Refuge is a true sanctuary where parrots live out their lives in a loving, spacious and happy environment under the guidance of extraordinarily caring people. The many visitors destined to pass through the refuge will come to understand that parrots are not toys or trophies, but beings with needs and emotions as real as our own."

– Rosemary Low (author of more than 30 books on parrots)