"It was a unique experience - with Baba so near in this tranquility..."
Marguerite Poley
By Marguerite Poley
AGNES BARON’S home at Meher Mount. The screened-in porch to the right of the building is where Marguerite Poley put a cot to sleep on while staying during the time Agnes was away in April 1950. (Photo: Lud Dimpfl, November 1956)
“Can you manage it?” said the voice on the telephone. It was [caretaker and co-founder] Agnes Baron who wanted to know if I could stay at Meher Mount for a couple of weeks while she visited friends up north [in Northern California].
“Yes,” I replied. “My mom is here and my painting commissions have no deadlines.”
So in April 1950, Agnes gave me a chores list. I was to:
Take care of Kali, her Collie-mix dog. And Pundit and Fana, her two cats.
Activate the electric water pump (down a steep hill) every other day. Do some watering if/when needed.
Weed a large strawberry patch located on a slope.*
In all these activities, Kali was my constant companion.
It was a unique experience — with Baba so near in this tranquility, the silence — so far away from everyday life.
Sometimes Meher Mount was surrounded by fog and you found yourself on an island. Cold nights. Drizzle. Clear, sharp days when the Channel Islands stood out of the Pacific [Ocean] like sentinels; once, wet snow, lasting only overnight. Some moonlit nights, magic!
And always Baba, Baba, Baba….
I chose to sleep on a cot. The front porch of Agnes’ little house served as [a] bedroom; Kali always by me.
During this sojourn I saw no one except for Jean Adriel,** who came up with David and Sunny Livingston for a visit. Agnes returned a day early, the day before that, the strawberry path was finished. Just in time!
Agnes had a wonderful time with her friends, and do did I, thanks to Beloved Baba, thanks to Agnes…and thanks to Magnificent, Mystical Meher Mount.
MARGUERITE POLEY, Jean Adriel, and Sunny Livingston in 1949. (Source: Meher Baba Travels)
Notes
*Agnes Baron supported herself and Meher Mount by selling freshly picked strawberries in the Ojai Valley. See her discussion of selling strawberries in “Agnes Baron Meets Meher Baba for the First Time.”
**Jean Adriel was a co-founder of Meher Mount and author of Avatar, a biography of Meher Baba.
Source
Marguerite Poley, “Meher Mount Memories II: April 1950,” Love Street LampPost, January 2006, pg. 44, (c) Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Reprinted with permission.