I have been communicating with Ben Williams, the Cate School headmaster. The fire is prancing about their campus but all is well this morning. The good news: very light winds. Our hearts are with them and with all the others still in the perilous path of this monstrous fire, which also continues to rage in the forest to our northwest.
As I hope you all know, our actual campus, while surrounded by charred moonscape, is, miraculously, just fine. Yes, we have a major cleaning job in front of us, but I am celebrating this fact. Our insurance company, The Hartford, has sent in a top-flight cleaning company called Servpro, and this team is scouring Thacher from top to bottom.
The whole place will be clean and ready to go when our students return on January 3. In the meantime, our faculty are now coming back slowly depending upon their tolerance for particulate laden air.
And I am also happy to have our horses back on campus as of yesterday. We cannot thank our rancher friends in Oak View, the Haleys, and horse clinician, Ted Robinson, for taking in our cayuses. We owe them big time. I also want to give a shout out to the Thacher trustees—and especially the Building and Grounds Committee—who over the last 20 years worked with our team and generous donors to install two more big water tanks and all of the water infrastructure including on-line irrigation systems and hydrants that saved the day when parts of the barranca were engulfed in flame on Thursday.
The fire trucks were filling up all Thursday morning on the Hill. We were able to soak our fields and orchards so that embers found unfriendly landings. All will be well. Please enjoy these photos taken recently by Joy that show our recovering campus. We—Joy and I—are now walking out on the campus. For the first time in five nights, we can actually see stars. What a blessing! Our astronomer, Jonathan Swift, would be very pleased to see that there are so few lights on here in the Ojai Valley.
Mandatory evacuation order remains in effect. We are so fortunate that the wind is not blowing right now, at least at this end of the Valley, as all of these remaining fires would no doubt send their embers flying onto campus and beyond.
As we look up and across the barranca—the Horn Canyon creek bed—we can see patches of glowing fire about Diamond Hitch, the Newton K. Chase trail, and the Forest Cook trail, like campfires here and there. This was an inferno several hours ago; then, through skill and astonishing calm, was managed expertly by the firefighters and brought under control. Our team members have underlined an inner beauty of the Mount which is just as touching to us as the outer beauty has ever been: a team of people seamlessly committed to serving the whole.
It is beautiful to be a part of something greater than ourselves and to feel others alongside us, moved by the same love. At the core of the beautiful outer forms of Meditation Mount which inspire us all, is an activating, harmonious, collaborative Force, a Presence that the outer forms - like our gardens and our team - reflect, and which the Mount invites us to contact within our own hearts and in connection with one another.
We are grateful that this Presence remains fully shining and available to all who choose to participate with the Mount. The Mount was founded upon this Force and it seems it was at work through Tim, Art and others while Ojai was threatened, as Firefighters later told us the fire was ushered to split north and south, preventing it from moving straight west into Ojai.
When the outer forms of beauty constrict, it's the inner beauty of service that, when cultivated in community, brings renewal and reinvigoration. Our hearts can be lifted, even as we face the grey torn landscapes around us. This shared purpose of healing, and the actions that follow, give rise new beautiful outer forms - both at Meditation Mount, and throughout the Ojai region. These hills will come alive again and the Mount is a place that can catalyze that process.
Please join us by contributing to this restoration through your gift today. We also greatly appreciate your offers of voluntary help but as we are still in the midst of this crisis, are unable to respond to them immediately. If however you wish to contact us at rebuild null meditationmount.
Our actions are our only true belongings. Thich Nhat Hanh. In The Short Term Although it will be a few weeks before we will know what date we can reopen for continuous service, we are already planning ways that we can support the greater community through this next period of months, as we heal together. We will seek to lift the hearts and vision of people from all around, as for example, they come to gaze upon the swath of the Ojai Valley that was miraculously saved from the fire, or to find healing by working together replanting trees and gardens.
The Ventura County Sheriff's Office said fewer than 10 homes were affected by this evacuation order. California Highway Patrol requested a closure of Highway at the Ventura County line with traffic being diverted via Highway A hard closure was put in place by Caltrans around 5 p.
The Ventura County Sheriff's Office said only local residents with identification will be allowed through. Ventura County is currently under an excessive heat warning from 10 a. June 16, and an excessive heat watch from 9 p. Ventura County government buildings will be closed to the public effective Wednesday, Jan. Stay Home Order extended. Read more: in review Jan.
Ojai Valley News photo by Holly Roberts. Snow covers the trees of Pine Mountain in Dec. A cold, slow-moving storm brought another 2 to 3 inches of rain to most areas of the Ojai Valley Dec.
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