SEABECK Registration Open Until September 16
We are 11 days and counting until this year’s special PNW Kejiwaan gathering at Seabeck!! If you have put off registering but would still like to attend, there is still room!! On the brochure below, there are four clickable links: one to apply for financial assistance, one with FAQs, one showing a video from last year’s gathering at Seabeck, and one to register.
FOR THOSE JOINING US:
Transportation Update
We are fortunate enough to have several drivers who have volunteered to take a passenger or two from various starting points. If you need a ride, please let Isabel know by e-mail at seabeck@subudpnw.org or by phone at (360) 265-2000 as soon as possible and I will help you connect with drivers in your area.
Gift Shop
Calling all makers, crafters, and artists!! Halima Taylor will be back again this year running the gift shop in a designated house just for that purpose. She is collecting handmade items, culinary goodies (packaging required) and original art for this year’s Gift Shop. (Chocolate truffles will be back!) Even if you haven’t participated before, your work is welcome! 20% of all sales go to Subud. She would also love a few volunteers to help for an hour here or there if you have time.
Susila Dharma Attic Treasures Sale and More
From the Susila Dharma Team at Portland Subud Center:
Little Ripples Keep Flowing for Susila Dharma…
We have some lovely items that will be on sale to help Subud Portland with its ongoing fundraising efforts for next year’s SD USA Matching Fund. Because we hope to raise at least $5,000 in seed money each year, we continue to fundraise all year long in anticipation of our next Match event. The sale this year at Seabeck will not be a silent auction, so we don’t need new items for the event. Just come and enjoy the ambiance as you help Subud Portland continue its long tradition of support for Susila Dharma USA. As all good farmers know, letting the fields lie fallow; should help boost the silent auction items available for our next Silent Auction endeavor for Susila Dharma.
SD Mystery Box Raffle/Drawing
SD will be offering a Mystery Box Raffle/Drawing at Seabeck along with our sale. Tickets will be on sale in the gift shop. Please don’t miss your opportunity to win the big prize!
SD Round Table Planned
Susila Dharma will be hosting a Round Table at Seabeck where we will all have the opportunity to share about SD and its impact on ourselves and our world. Look out for that when the schedule is announced. Hope to see you there!
SICA Update
by Jim O’Halloran
SICA will have a table in the Gift Shop featuring a preview of our 2027 SICA calendar as well as some mugs and tote bags, all with original artwork by Subud members. Calendar orders can be made with a donation to SICA. This year’s calendar features cover art by Anna Schroeder.
SICA is putting out a call for artists and board members. We will be offering grants in the near future. Stay tuned for more!!
Elderberry Assistance Available
What is Elderberry? The Elderberry Program seeks to outreach, communicate and engage Subud USA elders (age 75+) with the overall Subud USA community and ensure that their spiritual needs are met. As part of our mission statement, Elderberry connects elders with helpers and volunteers and keeps track of elders in need, whether in care facilities, hospitalization or at home to offer latihans and outreach.
Elderberry attempts to work with regional chairs/helpers to connect with those elders who have indicated inactive status or who have identified as having an unknown status. The purpose of the contact is to offer Latihan, transportation to Subud activities and ongoing communication. We partner with regions in providing financial assistance to needy elders who wish to attend Subud regional gatherings.
Introducing Our New Elderberry Representative: Marlena Knill
Marlena Knill lives near Port Townsend, WA. She was opened in January, 1968 in San Francisco and over the years has been a part of Subud groups in Carmel Valley, Marin County, San Francisco, and Bellingham Skagit Valley. In 1999 she moved to where she is now. She has a master’s degree in Career Counseling and taught classes at both the Skagit Valley College and the Private Industry Council in Mt. Vernon, WA for six years. She also served as a Subud Youth Activity Coordinator for several years and organized Subud youth activities at both an outdoor camp and at the San Anselmo Subud house. After moving to Mount Vernon, she organized several Subud youth events in the early 1990’s and worked part time as a volunteer coordinator for a non-profit in Port Townsend that provided drivers and in-home help for the elderly and handicapped. She looks forward to working with Subud members in the 75 and older group who are in need of the services described in the Elderberry program. Marlena can be reached at marlenaknill@gmail.com.
Embracing This Gathering
By Isabel Gates
I am Isabel of the writing spirit
Believer in people and inner truth
Lover of turtles and butterflies
Tumbling around in God’s big sugar shaker
A blind fool in free fall
Broken heart in my pocket
Hoping a chute will appear at the last minute
Enrolled in the school of “I don’t know anything.”
Living in the now
Sometimes, I want to curl up rather than unfold
No wonder I am untethered
I don’t know where I’m going
In my waking life
Is there any such thing as the wrong door?
Where is God on my bad days?
Is She an external intelligence?
Or the “Greater Me”?
Am I under the influence of another?
Who is in charge of me?
What a mean fate
To be so alone in my own head
Never quite sure where to go from here
It’s time to be
Firmly within a sunbeam splash
In this otherwise dark forest
It is time to be with others
In the higher place
Where God lives
It is time to breathe deep in the latihan
With all of you.
September, 2026