Tag Archives: Baba Lover Stories
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The Year My Mother Didn’t Dance for Baba
When my mother Ella Massie Marks was young, she had one great love: dance. “I lived it, I ate it, I breathed it,” she told me. “I worked at it five hours a day and if I had a rehearsal, another five hours a day. I never thought I wanted anything else in the world.”…
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The Pull to Come Home
What is home? Many have argued that it is not a place – it is a feeling. A sense of longing, of belonging, of familiarity, of instant comfort. A place to go to in the depths of your being from any physical location. What if such a place existed, but you had never been to…
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Baba’s Jane and St. Teresa of Jesus
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 In the summer of 1978, Jane Barry Haynes received one of her most cherished Meher Baba treasures, sent to her at Meher Center by Baba’s sister, Mani. It was something unusual: an ivory-colored stone with tan veins, about two inches long. The…
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Practical Spirituality
In 1993, on her way to the Center for the first time, Geri Craddock stopped by Sheriar Bookstore. There, while browsing, her eyes fell on pictures of Elizabeth Patterson and Mani S. Irani. She did not know these women but felt an instant connection with them. She went on to buy the pictures and off…
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In Joy
In a talk honoring the fifteenth year of Baba’s Amartithi in 1984, Kitty Davy spoke to the crowd about remembrance and joy. Quoting the dictionary, Kitty defines joy as “a forceful, sustained state of happiness that is associated with sharing, self-realization, and high-mindedness—an exultation of the spirit.” She then goes on to quote Mani, who…
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Resolving to Be His
Last year, on New Year’s Eve, thirty-seven-year-old Alex Davis made a sole New Year’s resolution. He resolved to visit the Center every month in the year 2023. The year is almost ending, and I have seen Alex on Center quite frequently, but has he really come every month? “Yes,” he exclaims, “sometimes even twice in…
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“High-end restoration on old shacks”
Every time I chat with Dean Nordquist, I learn something new. I look at Uncle Dean, as he is fondly referred to by Meher Center staff, as a man who could be a character from a classical novel. He has a distinctive look, an uncanny sense of humor, a bubbling laughter and a unique point…
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The Dhuni and Answered Prayer
What is answered prayer? Once, in Mandali Hall, Meher Baba’s close disciple Eruch told the story of a British dairy farmer named Michael who loved Baba.[i] In 1976, England was experiencing a terrible drought. As it wore on, Michael started going up to his second floor terrace each day to look at the bright unforgiving…
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A Force of Love
Every visit to Baba’s house is life changing in its imprint, gentle or pronounced, upon the soul. And yet, by His grace, on a recent visit I was touched beyond worldly measure. On a busy Friday afternoon, I brought my infant son to Baba’s house. Since he had already been there as a newborn, I…
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The Man in the Door
If you were a young person in New York in the 1960s who heard about the God-Man, you likely would have made your way to a Monday Night Baba meeting. There, the door would have swung open to a striking sight: a tall, unusual-looking character, often wearing a black coat, a black hat, a black…