I don’t remember the last time I shot my bow. It’s been at least a few months but I went out there and shot it a couple of days ago. This was something I used to do pretty much daily. First off, I shot at a closer distance than I normally would because it’s been so long. Second, just to get it out of the way, I did terribly. I didn’t expect anything else.
I see my bow every day. And every day I say, I’m going to shoot it tomorrow. That didn’t happen until a couple of days ago, and yes, the day prior I did say that I was going to shoot it tomorrow. It finally happened. I know, it’s not a big deal. Who cares? I do.
Sometimes in life we set things aside for whatever reasons. It could be laziness, being too busy, injury, or losing interest. I put it down for quite some time for a couple of reasons. One was that it was causing a lot of pain in my right shoulder, the arm I use to draw back the bowstring. The second reason is a bit more embarrassing to admit, but I found myself getting nervous that some of my neighbors could see me shooting.
The shoulder has been feeling somewhat better, so I hope to get back to shooting consistently. Regarding the anxiety or nervousness about the neighbors, I don’t know what happened. I’ve been anxious about that before for some reason, it never caused me to completely stop doing it. Sometimes I would look out back and if I noticed neighbors out on their decks or whatever, I simply would skip that day or try again at another time.
Anxiety, nervousness, fear—pick whichever word you prefer—have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can guess where that came from, but that’s for another potential article. My point here is that sometimes we set things down and never come back to them. Other times we just needed a break and we come back to it.
If you have valid reasons, like an injury or a change of heart, that’s fine, I think. The thing that was nagging at me is that I love archery and once my shoulder was feeling better I was letting that stupid anxiety thing beat me. I’m 49 years old. I am tired of that thing inside of me beating me. So, I won’t admit it but maybe I checked to see if my neighbors were out yesterday (or maybe I didn’t), but I forced myself to go shoot.
For me it was a reminder that I still have work to do. It was a reminder that I can be stronger than the dumb voice in my head. It was a reminder that I can both go shoot my bow while also living alongside the anxiety in my mind. And here’s the update: I have now shot my bow twice in three days.
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