Coming Home to Paradise

Jonas is thirteen years old. Three years ago, I remember checking his mother Jessica, brother Ezra and him into the Center for their first overnight stay. Jessica had seen the Center on several occasions while driving by. She eventually did her research and had already watched Baba videos when she came into the Center with a keen interest to learn more. The family was palpably thrilled, adding lightness to my own day. When I took them in to their cabin, Jonas could not contain his excitement. He said to his mother, “Mommy this is paradise.” As I witnessed this instant recognition, I knew then that this child had been here before.

Since then Jonas and his family visit the Center quite often. He is seen on the back of the Center work truck helping the laundry team, offering to clean cabins or riding his bike all over the Center. “There is something about being here that makes me want to do work. At home I might just be spending time on my phone or playing video games, but here I feel like I want to give back, especially to all the people I’ve met here who have been so kind to me,” he says. One of his dreams for when he grows up is to work at the Baba Center.

The Center is an oasis, its beauty in the fact that it camouflages itself to suit the whims of its playmates. For a child it will reveal the wonders of childhood much like a fairytale. “One of my favorite memories is when I was in a golf cart with Jamie and saw a raccoon steal a bag of trailmix and run up a tree. My brother literally tried to chase him up that tree,” he chuckles. Jonas loves spotting alligators in the lake. But has not had a snake spotting yet, “Can you believe it?” He hopes that will happen this summer. Some other things that he loves are going to the community picnics, afternoon chai time and standing on the bridge, endlessly watching the fish with his brother.

When we talked about Baba, Jonas said that he does not know anything about Him. He definitely feels Baba’s energy here and looks forward to starting to read more about Him. “But you know I saw Him,” he says very matter of factly. “I was walking to Baba’s house from chai one afternoon and for a flash second, I saw Baba sitting on the porch outside His house drinking chai.”

Jonas’ purity of desire is almost tactile. He feels in the depths of his heart that he has been here before. He knows this place, it is like coming home; a reunion of unexplained connections and longings before they can even be articulated. After being with him, I am reminded of the time when Elizabeth Patterson was asked about the common phenomenon of pilgrims feeling like they have been here before. “You see,” she said, “they feel a sense of familiarity because of an inner connection with Baba. People find Baba here because they bring Him here in their hearts.”