"You want to make something that speaks to hope..."
Meher Mount
Your Friday photo is in honor of Baba’s Tree…
After high winds and the 2017 Thomas Fire toppled and destroyed Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount, the limbs and branches were salvaged for future use.
Soon after, woodworker Darrel Wilson was approached by Agnes Montano, board secretary and guest caretaker at Meher Mount, to see if he wanted to make items from the fallen wood of Baba’s Tree. The following is his answer.
This photo by Juan Mendez is of a vase made by Darrel Wilson.
“You want to make something that speaks to resilience and recovery and hope in moving forward.”
Darrel Wilson from Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience
I think Agnes [Montano] sent me an email, if I recall. And it was an invitation to come to Meher Mount. And it just struck me as something unique and unusual, which always attracts me.
And you need to know something else. The Thomas Fire had such a profound impact on the Ojai Valley. You had people who were going to stay, stand, defend and burn up with the fire, if that's what it took.
And then you had people like myself. I walked out of my shop at 1:30 a.m. in the morning and looked at my tools, which I dearly love and said, “It's all stuff. I vote for my family. We're leaving.”
And it was all of this tension — stand and defend versus flee and come back — that was the history in front of Agnes calling me and saying, “Are you interested in making something that relates to this fire?”
Coming out of that history, you want to make something beautiful out of it. You want to make something that speaks to resilience and recovery and hope in moving forward.
~ Darrel Wilson, Woodworking Artisan & Tree of Fire Storyteller
Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience
The story of Baba’s Tree is 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 fulfilled 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 love and the tree’s own resilience, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.