"I enjoyed the feeling of just getting muddy..."

Your Friday photo is honor of the anniversary of the planting of Baba’s Tree Grove after the 2017 Thomas Fire burned Baba’s Tree to the core…

Former caretaker Ellen Kwiatkowski and former board member Jim Whedon are planting a seedling germinated from an acorn of Baba’s Tree. Imagine from photographer and volunteer Juan Mendez.

Volunteers gathered six years ago in December 2019 to plant the seedlings from Baba’s Tree to help create Baba’s Tree Grove at Meher Mount.

“I enjoyed the feeling of just getting muddy and wet, knowing that here’s how the new life starts.”

— Robert Turnage, Guest Caretaker & Board Treasurer

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The following conversation is from Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience, a heartwarming documentary film about Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount.

After the fire, guest caretakers Kristina Somma and Robert Turnage collected and nurtured acorns from Baba’s Tree to become the seedlings that were planted as part of Baba’s Tree Grove.

Kristina Somma: The day that we planted that the seedlings, I had a very profound feeling about the process. I had been reading a lot of information about the network of the mycorrhizae of the trees — how all of the oak trees on that property had been sending energy and nutrients to Baba's Tree since the 2017 Thomas Fire in order to sustain it and keep it alive.

And so it really struck me that underneath my feet there was this huge network of communication and nurturing going on amongst all of those trees.

And so, we were actually kind of participating in that beautiful network and supporting Baba's Tree by planting the seedlings and adding to that whole communication and nurturing network. And when we were planting the trees, I kept thinking that we were really participating in that beautiful, deep, mysterious, somewhat unseen network of life.

Robert Turnage: And my recollection was that above ground there was fog and a light rain going on. So when all the volunteers started planting the seedlings, your hands, every part of you was starting to get muddy.

But it was fun. I enjoyed the feeling of just getting muddy and wet, knowing that here's how the new life starts.

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Awards for Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Tree of Fire, which chronicles the story of Baba's Tree before and after the Thomas Fire, just received two awards at the We Regret to Inform You Film Festival (December 5-7, 2025) in Round Rock, Texas.

Congratulations to Margaret Magnus and Ben Hoffman for Best Director of a Feature Documentary and to Ben Hoffman for Best Cinematography for a Feature Documentary.

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“My heart’s a tiny begging bowl; Just one thing I pray..."

Your Friday photo…

This beautiful bowl was crafted by artisan Darrel Wilson from salvaged wood from Baba’s Tree. The poem is by Heather Nadel, a resident volunteer in Meherabad and Meherazad, India, places of pilgrimage for followers of Avatar Meher Baba.

“My heart’s a tiny begging bowl;
Just one thing I pray —
Make it a little bit bigger every day
Make it a little bit bigger every day — ”

— Heather Nadel

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Begging Bowl Song

I am a poor man, I beg for my board
With a begging bowl that holds as much
As I ever care to hoard
And I wander through the countryside
Begging door-to-door
For a bowlful of love, and no more!

Well, one day feeling spritely, confident and wry,
I went up to the palace gate
Of which I’d ‘ore been shy
And I begged me a kingdom,
Of the porter asking, "Why
Does the King get it all, and not I?"

Just then in the distance, we heard a sudden sound,
Someone swift approaching
And the folk knelt all around
For the King in His splendour
From the tower room came down
And one quivering beggar He found.

He looked at me, my bowl of scraps;
He'd seen my like before
A smile flashed across His face,
And I trembled even more
Then He said, “I’d have given you the kingly store
But that bowl can't hold any more!"

Meher, darling Meher, you can see my dismay!
I didn’t know when I came to you
How much You’d give away —
My heart’s a tiny begging bowl;
Just one thing I pray —
Make it a little bit bigger every day
Make it a little bit bigger every day —

~Heather Nadel

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Source
Poems to Avatar Meher Baba, an Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook, pg. 11. ©1985 Manifestation Inc., North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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"Love has to spring spontaneously from within..." ~Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo…

Guest caretaker Agnes Montano recently found this heart-shaped piece of bark which had fallen from Baba’s Tree. Coincidentally, she had just heard former caretaker Elizabeth Arnold’s story about a piece of heart-shaped bark that fell from Baba’s Tree more than 15 years earlier.

Elizabeth Arnold’s story is below.

“Love has to spring spontaneously from within; it is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; but while love cannot be forced upon anyone, it can be awakened through love itself.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Elizabeth Arnold’s story of the heart-shaped piece of bark from Baba’s Tree is told in the film Tree of Fire: A Story of Love Resilience, a documentary about Baba’s Tree.

I was giving tours under the tree. For several days I kept noticing these pieces of bark that had fallen off the tree. They were heart shaped and sometimes they would fall while people were under the tree.

I would see the heart shape and I would say, “Oh, here is a heart shaped bark. Take it with you.” People loved it.  It was fun.

Then one day, a very dear friend of mine came to Meher Mount. She wanted to go under the tree. She explained that she wanted to pray for a friend of hers. She went under the tree.

She was sitting on a bench, and I thought, “Well, she’ll really enjoy just hearing about this, the heart shaped bark that’s falling off the tree.”  I’m telling her how sometimes they just fall right off the tree, and it’s a heart shape.  

Yes, you’re probably guessing – that’s exactly what happened. A piece of bark fell right in between the two of us. I picked it up and I looked at it. On examination, it was a perfect heart shape.

I handed it to her and said, “Take this bark to your friend and tell her it is from Baba’s Tree.”  So, she did.

She had explained to me that the reason her friend was very troubled was that her friend’s daughter was in the hospital with cancer. She was only 30 years old. The disease was pretty far along, and there was a big concern. And at 30 years old, she had young children. It was very troubling to her mother.

So, my friend gave the mother the heart-shaped piece of bark. And what neither of us knew at the time, as we found out later, was that the mother, her friend, took the bark to her daughter in the hospital.

This was incredibly significant because unbeknownst to us, the daughter was a Meher Baba lover.  The mother did not understand and wanted nothing to do with it. She couldn’t conceive of it.

Now here she is going to the hospital to visit her daughter, taking her the piece of bark, and showing it to her. “This came from Baba’s Tree. It fell in front of my friend. It’s a heart shape. This is for you.”

There had been a very severe rift in their relationship at the time. They weren’t even talking. So that rift was mended.

And then in a short time, we also heard that the daughter’s cancer went into remission. That again is the power of the tree.

The daughter didn’t even come to visit the tree. She was just in love with Meher Baba. And that connection at a distance made it to her in the hospital. Baba’s Tree. A piece of bark went to her in her hospital bed where she really needed it.

~Elizabeth Arnold, Resident Caretaker 2002-2010

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Meher Baba Quote
Charles Haynes, Meher Baba, The Awakener, (Second Edition, 1993, eBook), pg. 3. (North Myrtle Beach, SC: The Avatar Foundation, Inc.) ©1989 by Charles Haynes.

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"In the shadows, where sunlight fades..."

Your Friday photo…

“It was a misty day at Meher Mount when I was at Baba’s Tree. I took a peek inside the hollow trunk of the tree and saw these mushrooms growing. They inspired me to take a photograph,” said guest caretaker and photographer Juan Mendez. “I really appreciate the colors. It’s one of my favorite photos.”

Below is a poetic expression and then a scientific discussion of the symbiotic relationship between fungi and Coast Live Oaks, such as Baba’s Tree.

“In the shadows, where sunlight fades,
Beneath the canopy, in twilight glades,
Fungi weave their hidden lore,
Whispers of the forest floor.

Mushrooms sprout in clustered clumps,
Fairy rings and delicate bumps,
Caps of color, stems so slight,
A symphony in muted light.

Mycelium threads through soil so deep,
A network vast, in silent keep,
Connecting roots, a secret dance,
Of life and death in balanced chance.

On fallen logs, they find their stage,
Breaking down the wood of age,
Shelf fungi, with their layered grace,
Decomposers in a timeless race.

In damp and dark, spores take flight,
Invisible travelers, day and night,
Seeking places to call their own,
A kingdom where the strange is known.

From truffles hidden underground,
To molds where bread is sometimes found,
Yeasts that make the dough arise,
Fungi’s forms are nature’s prize.

Some bring healing, some cause woe,
Penicillin’s life-saving glow,
While others, toxic, bring a blight,
In nature’s balance, wrong and right.

Fairy-tale fungi, glowing bright,
Bioluminescent in the night,
Guiding footsteps with their gleam,
Like something from a distant dream.

A world unseen, yet ever near,
Fungi thrive, year after year,
Silent stewards of decay,
Turning death to life each day.

In the forest, in the field,
In every corner, secrets yield,
Fungi whisper, unseen, unheard,
Nature’s quiet, wondrous word.”

— Vinaya Joseph, Poet

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Fungi

A fungus can be any of the 144,000 known species of the kingdom Fungi, which includes yeasts, rusts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms.

Together with bacteria, fungi are responsible for breaking down organic matter and releasing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil and the atmosphere. Fungi serve as nature's primary decomposers recycling essential nutrients back into ecosystems.

Coast Live Oaks — such as Baba’s Tree — and fungi have a symbiotic relationship. The fungi are more efficient than oak roots at extracting water and nutrients from soil. They also produce protective chemicals against harmful bacteria and insects. In return, the oak provides carbohydrates to the fungi, food the fungi cannot produce itself.

Another critical function of fungi is erosion control. Fungi form connections underground from oak tree to oak tree and to other plants in the community.

As the oak tree grows, different species of fungi live with it. Also, more species live with it as it grows. On an old oak tree, there may be 250 species living in symbiosis with the oak. Also, as the season changes from winter to spring, for example, the dominant species of fungi living on the oak change.

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Sources

• “Mystical Fungi” by Vinaya Joseph on PoemHunter.com .

• “California Native Oaks and Mycorrhiza: The Growth and Ecology of California Native Oak Trees,” Las Pilitas Nursey, accessed September 18, 2025.

• “Fungus", Britannica, accessed September 18, 2025.

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"It's just leaves and branches. It shouldn't be that quiet."

Your Friday photo is in honor of Tree of Fire, a documentary of Baba's Tree…

A consistent theme for visitors to Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount is the silence they experience at the tree.

“When I would go under Baba’s Tree, I would feel like it was much quieter than it had any right to be,” remembered former caretaker Billy Goodrum.

“There are no walls. It’s just leaves and branches. It shouldn't be that quiet.”

This photo of Baba’s Tree taken in 2014 by visitor Stephanie Ervin shows some of the leaves and branches of the tree’s giant canopy.

“There are no walls. It’s just leaves and branches. It shouldn’t be that quiet.”

— Billy Goodrum, Resident Caretaker, 2019-2002

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“One thing that Meher Baba says is things that are real are given and received in silence,” said former caretaker Pamela Goodrum.

“For us, Baba’s Tree was a place of extraordinary silence.

“A place where you could go and you could really listen and hear something — a voice or something that you might not be able to hear otherwise anywhere else. And for some that might be Meher Baba, and for others that might be something else.”

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Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Billy and Pamela Goodrum were resident caretakers at Meher Mount from 1999 to 2002. These comments are from their interview for the upcoming documentary about Baba’s Tree.

Tree of Fire is the journey of a seemingly ordinary oak tree blessed by the presence of Avatar Meher Baba. For decades, Baba’s Tree fulfills its role of inspiring others. Then one night it is felled by fire and high winds. Its very existence is threatened.

Through the tree’s own resilience and love, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.

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"It makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba's Tree particularly intimate and private."

Your Friday photo celebrates Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956…

“What I find particularly interesting about Meher Baba’s interaction with Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount is that there are no photos of Him under the tree," noted guest caretaker and board member Agnes Montano.

“To me, it makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba’s Tree so particularly intimate and private.”

Over the years, guests have placed photos of Meher Baba under the tree in remembrance of Him.

In 2017, Wayne Myers and a friend visited. “We brought flowers and arranged them around the heart rock [marking the spot where Meher Baba sat] with one of my ‘travel Baba photos.’ It was just a spontaneous touch,” he remembered.

“To me, that makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba’s Tree so particularly intimate and private.”

— Agnes Montano, Guest Caretaker & Board Member

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Agnes Montano’s comments are from her film interview for the documentary, Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience:

“I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that on August 2, 1956, when Meher Baba was at Meher Mount, there were people taking photos. They were filming Him. But no photos of Him under Baba’s Tree.

“Throughout His presence on earth, Meher Baba had many interactions with trees. I have a whole collection of photos of Meher Baba with trees where He’s climbed on the tree, leaned on it, touched the leaves… but then here at Meher Mount, there’s no image of that moment.

“Meher Baba went under Baba’s Tree and had such a private moment.  He asked everyone else to stay away, and He was there alone. He left such a gift there.

“I see people visiting who have never heard about Meher Baba and all of a sudden, they just show up at Meher Mount because they feel that they need to be there.

“So, the presence of Meher Baba is calling people. It’s like a beacon calling people, almost like a lighthouse.”

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"It was like seeing a champion boxer just beaten and bloody on the ground..."

Your Friday photo is in honor of Baba’s Tree…

The comments from Ron Holsey, board vice president and guest caretaker, are from his interview for the feature documentary on Baba’s Tree — Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience.

This photo was taken by Margaret Magnus, producer of Tree of Fire, after the 2017 Thomas Fire and high winds felled Baba’s Tree. This picture shows a major section of the trunk lying on the ground after it broke off.

“The first time that I saw the tree after the fire, it was this grand majestic, strong living being that had been just decimated and was suffering.

“It was like seeing a champion boxer just beaten and bloody on the ground. It was this towering giant that had been felled. It was heartbreaking.

“I had a lot of empathy for tree. I just felt bad that Baba’s Tree tree had to go through that.

“It had been through so much. It had survived one fire already.”

— Ron Holsey, Board Member and Guest Caretaker

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Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Tree of Fire is the journey of a seemingly ordinary oak tree blessed by the presence of Avatar Meher Baba. For decades, Baba’s Tree fulfills its role of inspiring others. Then one night it is felled by fire and high winds. Its very existence is threatened.

Through the tree’s own resilience and love, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.

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"Nobody tries to save a tree this badly burned..."

Your Friday photo...

This week (December 4th) is the seven-year anniversary of the 2017 Thomas Fire that struck Meher Mount — and in particular Baba’s Tree. At the time, it was the largest wildfire in California history.

This photo of Baba’s Tree was taken former caretaker Buzz Glasky just days after the Thomas Fire swept through Meher Mount.

“Nobody tries to save a tree this badly burned...”

— Michael Inaba, ISA® Certified Arborist, 2018

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On the night of December 4, 2017, high winds toppled the giant canopy of Baba’s Tree and fire burned the trunk and limbs.

Baba’s Tree was shattered. The trunk was a hollowed-out shell. There were only a couple of inches of actual live wood. There was a hole in the tree’s trunk that was three or four feet wide. You could walk right into the middle of the trunk — or what had been the trunk.

We saw people come to the tree and weep. We knew we had to do everything humanly possible to help the tree recover. That's when we reached out to ISA® Certified Arborist Michael Inaba just a few weeks after the fire.

He came up with plan — watering, mulch, covering the limbs to protect them from sunburn, putting the tree in isolation (as you would a very ill patient), and spraying non-pesticide clay, and steel props to hold up the burned limbs.

“But…,” Inaba said, “Nobody tries to save a tree this badly burned.”

And then he asked, “If we don’t save the tree, what will the community think?”

All along, all we could do was our best — and leave the results to Meher Baba.

~ Margaret Magnus, Communications Director

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The Documentary on Baba’s Tree — COMING LATE SPRING

The story of Baba’s Tree begs to be told on film. It’s the journey of a seemingly ordinary oak tree blessed by the presence of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba.

For decades, Baba’s Tree fulfills its role of inspiring others — drawing seekers from around the world in search of inspiration, silence, joy and solace.

Then one night Baba’s Tree is felled by fire and high winds. Its very existence is threatened. Through the tree’s own resilience and love, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.

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"But let's not make it a tree. Meher Mount is more than just a tree."

Your Friday photo is in honor of Avatar Meher Baba’s presence at Meher Mount…

This video — an outtake from the documentary film on Baba’s Tree — shares the delightful story of how Meher Baba’s visit inspired the design of Meher Mount’s logo.

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“But, let’s not make it a tree. Meher Mount is more than just a tree.”

— Margaret Magnus, Communications Director

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In about 2010, I approached a volunteer and friend of ours, Nancy Pinckert, who is a very talented graphic designer. I asked her if she would help create a logo for Meher Mount.

We we both looked at each other and said, but let's not make it a tree. Meher Mount is more than just a tree.

So she goes away for three or four weeks. Then she calls me and says, “I have the first draft and I must warn you…”

And I say, “There's a tree.” And she says, “Yep.”

I think of the tree as not only symbolizing Meher Baba’s presence and the spiritual energy He left, but also the coming together of heaven and earth.

And to me, that’s the whole symbol of Meher Mount.

~Margaret Magnus, Volunteer Communications Director

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Video Credits

Storyteller — Margaret Magnus, Communications Director, Meher Mount
Logo Design — Nancy Pinckert, np studio
Photography & Production — Ben Hoffman, Square Productions
Meher Baba Photographs — Darwin Shaw ©Meher Nazar Publications, Meherabad, India
Meher Baba Quotes – Lord Meher, ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India

Copyright ©2024 Meher Mount Corporation, 9902 Sulphur Mountain Road, Ojai, CA 93023

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"What occurs to me around Baba's Tree as far as sound or silence..."

Your Friday photo…

Thank you to volunteer Stephanie Ervin for this delightful photograph of Baba’s Tree.

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“What occurs to me around Baba’s Tree as far as sound or silence is how profoundly calm and quiet it can be.”

— Robert Turnage, Board Member

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Robert Turnage and Kristina Somma shared their thoughts about silence at Baba's Tree while being interviewed for the documentary about Baba’s Tree: — Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience.

Robert Turnage

“What occurs to me around Baba’s Tree as far as sound or silence is how profoundly calm and quiet it can be.

“And there is a connection for me between that and the silence that Meher Baba observed for the last 44 years of His incarnation. You can definitely sense the silence at Baba’s Tree.”

Kristina Somma

“So if there’s any sound that emanates out from the sky or the tree, you’re listening. It's the silence, the calmness that allows you to be a deeper listener. I find myself listening very deeply at Baba’s Tree.

“My nature self is listening for any sound of an animal or a bird or any movement in the bushes.

“But also metaphorically, you could say that there's an opportunity to listen more deeply to your own inner self and more deeply to whatever Meher Baba might be asking you to hear. So they kind of come together for me.

“I tend to like to go to Baba's Tree on my own the first time I get back to Meher Mount. Because I am trying to allow myself that deeper listening place in that relationship.”

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Meher Baba’s Silence

Avatar Meher Baba began His silence on July 10, 1925. He said that His silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise, but solely in connection with His universal work.

After Meher Baba started His silence, He communicated by writing on a slate board.  After that, He pointed to letters on an alphabet board to spell out words. Later, He used a series of hand gestures that were interpreted by His close disciples.

He kept silence for 44 years until He dropped His body on January 31, 1969.

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