"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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"If you let yourself go, you will see God in that bird."

Your Friday photo…

Guest caretaker Juan Mendez photographed this turkey vulture in flight over Meher Mount. His comments about seeing God in nature are from his interview for the documentary film, Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience.

“If you let yourself go, you will see God in that bird.”

— Juan Mendez, Photographer and Guest Caretaker

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The following is an excerpt from Juan Mendez’s interview for Tree of Fire, the documentary film about Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount:

“Maybe one day Baba’s Tree will not be here, and we will be sad if we are alive at that time. But we have to remember God is above everything.

“You will find a way to connect to Him. You see a fox or you feel the breeze against in your face. That's a manifestation of God. So you just have to open your heart to to see that, to feel it.

“That’s why Avatar Meher Baba said you can appreciate God in nature. Trees, the wind, the birds, the fox, the turkey vultures are nature. If you take your time at Meher Mount, you're going to see species walking around or flying.

“You'll see the birds are majestic as they fly over you and fly over Baba’s Tree. So you're seeing God. If if you let yourself go, you will see God in that bird.”

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Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Tree of Fire is a heartfelt story of loss, survival, and spiritual connection. After a devastating fire, a once-thriving oak – blessed by Avatar Meher Baba – rises from the ashes to offer love and solace. The survival of Baba’s Tree becomes a living symbol of resilience and Divine love. Through personal testimonies, archival footage, and breathtaking imagery, the film invites viewers to rediscover their own capacity for healing, transformation, and spiritual awakening. Click here for festival screenings.

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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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"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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