Archery

I belong to an archery club and we met up yesterday at the range.  It had been a while since we had an event and it was good to see them again.  This a great club because everyone is friendly and their energy is wonderful to be around.  I shoot a left handed recurve bow with a 25 pound draw weight.  However, my goal was always to shoot a long bow (think Robin Hood).  Long bows tend to come in heavier draw weights and when I started out, I was pulling at 20 pounds.  So I had to work my way up by developing my strength.

 

My friend Paola has been shooting an English long bow for a while and when I expressed my wishes to her, she let me try out her 30 pound long bow.  I was able to successfully pull the full draw weight and shoot.  I’m not a marksman and am glad when I hit any part of the target, but the fact that I was shooting a long bow had me on cloud nine.

I’m so excited and can’t wait to purchase my own.  One of the wonderful aspects of being a member of this club is its members, like Paola.  From the first day I joined, she has been friendly and welcoming and has shared her equipment with me.  She’s a great person and I’m glad that I met her along with all the other members of our club.  They’re the best!

Saving my pennies for an English long bow has been added to my to-do list, and hopefully by the summer I’ll be tagging along with one of my own.

Severed Quiddity

The tumultuous downpour of fallen dreams
 Disintegrated fragments reduced and degraded
 It’s abandoned relics a tribute to despair
  
Trapped and shackled – the barrier unseen
 The vortex ensues; its maelstrom unrestrained
His Will terminally shredded and diminished
In a cataclysm of adversity

Regurgitated remnants of a vulnerable psyche
 Choke in the putrid fumes of futility
 Despondent and withering from the scourge

Spirit lies mauled in the barren pit
 Where the hollowness of a phantom wind
 Echoes the distant cry
 Of death’s song

Status Update On My New Year's Resolution

It’s now February and the first month of my New Year’s resolution was slow going.  There were days in which I wondered if I should’ve  made a resolution at all, especially since they’ve never been successful in the past.  But I’m going to go forward for another month and then reassess.

My time management hasn’t improved either.  On my last post, I decided to write more on Wednesday nights – that worked once but has been an overall failure.  At the time, I didn’t realize that Wednesday nights wouldn’t work for me.  So my writing has been worse than sporadic - it’s been non-existent.  I have worked on my novel – basically researching elements that I want to include in my world building, but there has to be some way that I can squeeze more writing in.  For now, I’ll just write here and there squeezing any block of time that I can, since scheduling a structured writing session isn’t working.

Meditation hasn’t happened yet either, but it’s still part of the plan and I will eventually get to it.  If I don't start this month then perhaps it'll happen in March.  I’ve made some drastic changes to my diet to improve overall health.  Besides eating more fruits and vegetables, I’m also avoiding gluten and milk products.  I’m lactose intolerant so that explains avoiding yummy things like milkshakes and cheesecake.  What has been proving very difficult for me is abstaining from breads, pastas, cakes, etc.; because anything made with flour has gluten in it.

As for eliminating clutter – I don’t know where to begin.  No, that’s not true.  I do know where I want to begin but somehow I can’t bring myself to do it.  I don’t know why.  Every time I decide this will be the time to start, a bout of lethargy assails me and I focus on something else – like curling down on my bed with a book and reading, napping, or snacking.  My email inbox is overflowing and I wonder if I can sit down to read it all.  It’s been weeks since I visited any of the blogs I follow. 

How do other writers do it; find the time to write, organize their lives and their families while producing book after book?  Maybe I just need to relax for a while so that my batteries get recharged.  Or maybe I’m going about it the wrong way.  For me being a writer is writing; it’s someone who writes.  In order to consider myself a writer I must write.  If I’m not writing (whether I’m thinking about writing or not) it doesn’t merit, in my current opinion, enough credit to call myself a writer.