Nurturing Elders & Others
Lazy Daze – Relaxed, Not Lazy!
By the Rev. Paul Graves
Have you even heard of Lazy Daze? Perhaps you haven’t – even if you are an older adult, a baby boomer, a young(er) adult or perhaps an active pastor. (Yes, I recently heard that some pastors were asked about Lazy Daze, and they basically said “What is that?”)
Lazy Daze is a two-day retreat for older adults and baby boomers held every September at Lazy F Camp. On September 15, 2014, the Rev. John Shaffer shared a helpful view of “Lazy Daze” on the Pacific Northwest UMC News Blog. At the conclusion of Lazy Daze on Sept. 11, both John and I said we would do what we could to “promote” Lazy Daze as soon as we could.
John’s first promo is well worth reading, for it gives the basics of Lazy Daze in a straight forward way. My effort is this column. I’ll mention some basics too, but my primary focus is to help others understand some of the value of those two days from my own experience and what I observed in September.
Lazy Daze, as the column title erroneously suggests, is not really “lazy”. The name is a gentle play on the Lazy F camp’s name. But while Lazy Daze is not lazy, it is relaxed. Our time is not over-scheduled. There is enough time for campers to both enjoy each other and take alone-time when that’s desired.
There are designated activities offered, but participants can choose whether or not to, well, participate. Each year, those activities can change depending in part on the gifts offered by participants.
This year, one person brought enough supplies for a good number of campers to create a macramé “welcome necklace” he first discovered at a church in Hawaii. Visitors to that church were offered this kind of necklace as a gesture of friendship. A good number of Lazy Daze folks created their own necklaces.
One of the constants of Lazy Daze is what I would informally call a “workshop”. (For instance: some years ago, I led a multiple-session workshop dealing with aging issues.) This year, Jim and Nancy Davis led a 3-part workshop about “Wells of Faith”.
They led us through some focused – and helpful – conversations about where our spiritual resources lie deep with us. We also discovered, in gentle ways, some wonderful sharing of those resources with each other.
The spirituality of aging can be such a rich tool for us to use every day of our lives. But to use it effectively, we need to be intellectually and spiritually curious enough to realize thinking the same thoughts every day won’t help us much! A healthy spiritual journey is not a “marching-in-place” journey, folks.
A few days at Lazy Daze can be a wonderful reminder that the journey is never over, and it doesn’t need to be traveled alone. Lazy Daze does happen only once a year, and for only two days. But it provides a relaxed, inviting atmosphere among renewed and new friendships that can encourage us to refresh our spiritual curiosities for another step forward in our own journeys. So consider marking down September 15-17, 2015 on your calendar.
That is our next gathering date for a relaxing, but not lazy, Lazy Daze!
