submitted by George Demers
How will our children learn if they don’t see us fly? How will our children fly if we don’t give them the opportunities?
Many, many years ago, when I was a very young man, I came across these words which had a great impact on me at the time: “I am a lover but have yet to find my thing to love.” I don’t remember who wrote them or where they came from, a poem, an essay, a book? The reason they had such an impact on me at that time in my life was because they so perfectly captured how I was feeling – a dawning awareness of great passion within me, a feeling of intensity and the realization that I did not yet know how to express this passion into the world. I hadn’t yet found my thing to love.
This was also many years before I discovered Subud. Discovering Subud has changed all that for me but that’s another story. This is the story I would like to talk about now. I hope most of you are aware of Basara Youth Camp 2016, a Subud Youth gathering which will take place from December 29, 2016 to January 7, 2017 in Rungan Sari, Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is a collaboration between Subud Youth Activities International and Subud Youth Indonesia and is being organized primarily by the youth in Indonesia ( by the youth, for the youth ) with support, as requested, from the WSA, IHs, all wing bodies (SICA, SDI, SESI, SIHA), Yes Quest and Human Force , all of whom will be present during Basara and will help facilitate the event.
Basara is an opportunity for young members to deeply connect with Subud by deeply connecting with themselves. It’s an opportunity for young Subud members to find their place within Subud and in the world.You can find out all about it on their website – basarayouthcamp.com .
We need to get our youth there, however, to allow them this opportunity to develop. Many are limited by lack of financial resources and attending will be very challenging.
In my role as International Youth Coordinator, I have had an opportunity to meet and talk with many Subud members and have always been moved by a strong sense of yearning many have to share the gifts they have received through the latihan with the younger generation, to allow them to discover, sooner, many of the things we discovered much later in our lives. Not to pass on Subud to them, but to share Subud with them. Together.
I have this vision of every single local Subud group interacting with their youth. Wouldn’t it….. couldn’t it…. be amazing if every group began a project to work together to raise enough money to send one or two young people from their group to Basara. The older members working with the younger members, getting to know each other, sharing together, stretching and growing together. Teaching each other to fly. Yes, that would be amazing. We can do that!
Note: it is also possible to donate directly to Basara. There are two funds established, one to assist youth with registration costs, accessed through the Basara website atwww.basarayouthcamp.com/donate. There you can find a secure paypal link for donations. The other fund is the International Youth Travel Fund to mitigate the travel costs of those youth who need to travel the farthest. This fund can be contacted through the WSA website.
We highly appreciate every penny you donate, may God bless you. Thank you so much.