Ms. Merlin had a birthday!

Ms. Merlin turned Sweet 16 on Dec. 8th, 2013 with a peace party.
On the afternoon before Merlin’s birthday, Gloria attended an event at Kingston, NY’s City Hall with a program program presented by Deep Listening Institute as part of Ione’s 18th Annual Dream Festival with The City of Kingston, with Mayor Shayne Gallo presenting internationally-acclaimed recording artist and Tibetan Buddhist Yungchen Lhamo in a solo concert. Yungchen’s concert, “Discovering Your Inner Health, Healing and Strength” was very auspicious. Baritone Kerry Henderson vocalized with Yungchen, Paul Oliveros accompanied her vocals playing a conch shell and Ione spoke about bringing our dreams of peace into form. Yungchen previously met the Parrots for Peace in Kingston and has asked about them. At the concert Scotty Bruer of PeaceNow.com asked to meet the peace parrots and we arranged for it the following day before he left to fly back to Venice Beach, California. So, on Merlin’s birthday when I told her we were going to have a party at the home of artist Julie Hedrick and musician Peter Wetzler to meet their friend Scotty who had a website generating petitions from one billion people from all 196 countries to ask for peace right now she dropped a wing feather as an offering to him in gratitude for appreciating his joining the global peace work. We presented this sacred feather in a ceremony of union between all people, animals and nature as we work to achieve balance, harmony and respect for all forms of life from the one source creator. Julie and Peter served a wonderful birthday bread and fruit pudding that Merlin and her family all enjoyed with a Happy Birthday song by all.
(photos to come)

Parrots for Peace in a peace film

Gloria congratulating Greg on his film

Gloria congratulating Greg on his film

The Parrots for Peace appear briefly in the film Rooted in Peace by Greg Reitman; “every person’s quest” to explore how we move toward peace as a culture. The film addresses the subtle influences of our culture to create an acceptance—as war, violence, and conflict with one winning and one losing as a given in the social order, and he interviews luminaries in the peace community to find alternatives we can create individually and collectively, and that peace starts from within with awareness and action.

Phil Sauers (WWRF), SuZen (of Universal Peace Day & The NYC Peace Museum), Greg Reitman and Gloria

Phil Sauers (WWRF), SuZen (of Universal Peace Day & The NYC Peace Museum), Greg Reitman and Gloria

It was a pleasure to be at a private friends and family screening to see the progress of Greg’s years-long endeavor to put out a film for special audiences interested in this topic to get one perspective on the personal choices impact and the notion of intention and dedicated authentic commitment to take care of oneself and extend it to community and our world. Thank you, Greg, for your contribution to new thinking made more broadly accessible and easy to relate to with watching the time lapse journey of your own understanding from conceptual to practical application of peace path practices. It is a delight to see the parrots walking with you in the film.

Gloria with Ken Johnson of One Voice Coalition

Gloria with Ken Johnson of One Voice Coalition

Mary Carlin of Earth Society Foundation, SuZen, Greg and Gloria

Mary Carlin of Earth Society Foundation, SuZen, Greg and Gloria

Sinterklaas and The Parrots for Peace

Holiday season has begun and The Parrots for Peace are spreading their good cheer. P1910632They were invited to participate in a popular seasonal event in Kingston to bring to life in a contemporary way the legend of Sinterklaas and the spirit of generosity this time of year signals around the world. St. Nicholas was a generous Turkish man who was sainted for his charitable spirit without need for recognition or repayment. This “from the heart” idea of helping and giving is a reminder to us all throughout the year to have compassionate views and to be of service to others. The Parrots for Peace were at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston to start off the day listening to poems, stories, songs, music, watching a dance performance and then getting to meet Sinterklaas. They moved to midtown Kingston for a celebration put on by community members with a traditional song, a warm fruit punch and gift bags of goodies and treats for everyone in the Mexican and Latin American style of the season’s festivities. Then the Parrots for Peace had a one hour time to tell their story and get to meet lots of people to share their love and message of a shared world with mutual respect for all life. They walked in a procession with Sinterklaas and a man with bells ringing out the hopeful and magical times ahead in the coming new year when you see things with an open heart.

Rooted in Peace

Hello Peacecology Friends,
The Parrots for Peace family are delighted that our friend Greg Reitman’s new film, Rooted in Peace, will be screened soon in both Los Angeles and New York City. Peace-nik, having just celebrated his fifth birthday at 9am on Nov 6th, appears in the film when he was just several months old and able to join his parents, Ms. Merlin and Mr. Baby on the many travels and adventures of the Parrots for Peace family. He was thrilled to be a peace ambassador representing the voice of nature with his parents as they regularly met people to actively engage in conversations and by their presence with their inspiring mission to help create a peace culture and join their voices and enthusiasm on behalf of peace, social justice, ecology and sustainability activities. The Parrots for Peace were shown briefly in the film walking over the Brooklyn Bridge with Greg Reitman on a rainy afternoon with hundreds of people who gathered as part of The World March for Peace and Nonviolence. The Parrots for Peace founder, Gloria Waslyn, is in the background scenes for several moments of footage of Pete Seeger ringing the Peace Bell at the United Nations on Spring Equinox for the annual Earth Day commemoration event co-ordinated by the Earth Day Foundation. The Parrots for Peace are also in a short clip of Pete Seeger and friends who regularly gathered at a Peace Pole in Wappingers Falls, which was planted and sponsored by the Parrots for Peace to replace a pole which went missing from a spot on the corner where the Parrots for Peace had previously co-sponsored a peace pole with organizer Chris Ruhe, a peace musician. The site, in Wappingers Falls, NY, at the intersection Routes 9 and 9D, is where on Saturdays from noon to 2pm, peace songs were sung to bring awareness to people driving by the busy road. The clip shows Greg speaking with Pete about the importance of standing for peace and also speaking with a group gathered on the opposite corner who advocate supporting the country’s strength in a show of nationalism.

We applaud Greg’s documentary of his personal exploration of peace, and how to be a force for change by integrating small and large decisions on an aware, conscious basis to be one more person in the building of a peace culture, even through personal care of health as peace is an inside out process. We wish him good luck in the Sundance Film selection process and with his upcoming screenings. Congratulations, Greg, on another thought-provoking film. I remember vividly first meeting you at a Green and Sustainability expo in NYC years ago when you spoke about your film Fuel and all the introductions into the peace culture and water awareness activists in NY with Phil Sauers of World Water Rescue Foundation, Paul Sladkus of Good News Broadcast, World Water Day celebrants from many United Nations NGOs, and Pete Seeger; I remember when you planted your first tree at a church yard in NYC with the Parrots for Peace being held by our nephew who is in your film as a hopeful carrier of the message to be Rooted in Peace as a tree is rooted in the earth.

We are delighted that Jonathan McHugh, Britta & Greg Reitman invited me to the Rooted in Peace screening on Wed., Nov 20, 2013 at 07:00 PM at the Laemmle Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401; and to a private cast & crew screening in NYC on Wednesday December 4th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. It will be at the SOHO House which holds 100 people.

Good luck to Greg and his wife Britta who worked alongside him and to Greg’s brother-in-law who was so helpful in the production. It has been a personal joy to be part of the shaping of the project from its earliest days and to watch the progress over these last four plus years.