No one knew the prayer by heart. Someone rushed off for a copy in the office.
After it was read, Baba said, "Let us ask pardon of God for our misunderstandings, for unnecessarily hurting the feelings of others, for our faults. May God give you all one percent of the infinite patience Baba has! Let us ask God's pardon. Now one by one, embrace me."
Slowly, they formed a line and each embraced Baba, who had risen and was standing by the table. This was to be each one's last embrace, as Baba was leaving the next day and he had said he would not permit any embrace thereafter.
Kitty had slipped out before the meeting was over to prepare Baba's lunch, and therefore missed the prayer and embrace.
Baba scolded her, "Have I asked you to cook and be preoccupied the entire time, or to be with me as much as possible?!"
Then he forgave her and gave her the embrace she had missed.
Baba had agreed to Jeanne Shaw's suggestion about a trip to Muir Woods that day. The meeting had delayed it, but soon everyone boarded buses and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge and up Mount Tamalpais. Baba was taken in a car and stopped first to visit the home of Joseph and Kari Harb (at 837 Faxon Avenue). He went through the whole house, distributed prasad and sat in Joseph's favorite chair.
Baba arrived at Muir Woods and asked the Shaws to lead the way into the redwood forest with its gigantic trees (the oldest living, growing things in nature) and show him the Ancient Tree. The children flocked around him, hanging on to his arms like bright birds. Walking among the redwood trees, Ruth White recalled: "As our eyes soared upward to their incredible heights, we knew that the One beside us soared above us spiritually as these redwoods soared above every living thing on Earth."
Baba paused for a moment before the giant redwood tree over 1,800 years old, and sat down in a hollow of the huge trunk. He closed his eyes, and it seemed the living Buddha had returned and was seated under the sacred Bodhi tree. Darwin took a snapshot. Then Baba stood up, looked the tree over and seemed uninterested in seeing the rest of the park. He asked Kitty when lunch was scheduled, and on hearing they were late, signaled for all to return.