The Oldest Craft

 

Well, it looks like my posts are actually coming out every two weeks. 😛 It's a good start, as I think I only wrote two posts the entirety of last year. 

Part of my health journey (new post about this soon!) that I didn't at all expect, was that along with the new energy and ability to fit into my clothes that I feel, would be a wakening interest in my old hobbies. When I got married 9 years ago, part of uniting my life with my husband's was a loss of all motivation to do anything that didn't involve him. We did everything together, and didn't like making plans where the other wasn't involved. This is good and healthy and part of a new marriage relationship, and it was so much fun! I didn't want to spend one single second apart from him. In a word, I got fat and happy, lost all my hobbies, and had kids. 

One of my fears as I watched marriages crumble all around me was that if I had my own life and my own hobbies or spent any time away from my husband, I would lose him. Part of maturity seems to be learning not to live my life by fear or make decisions in fear. One of the side effects of this fear was that I completely let myself go, because my husband was too busy working to go to the gym with me, and I had no discipline when it came to my food choices. A great lesson I learned this past year, at age 36 and 9 years into my relationship, was that taking care of myself is not only not selfish, it's actually essential to my marriage and my kids and even to my existence.  I am not advocating for developing a life of your own away from husband and kids. Not at all, that is one of my pet peeves. I do not need time away from them. Other than maybe an hour to myself occasionally to recharge, I love all my people and my very favorite and most restful place is with my husband and children.  What I'm saying is that my relationship with TJ has matured to the point where although he is still my favorite person to do everything with, I have finally allowed myself to have hobbies and interests where he is not involved. If he wanted to be involved, wonderful. But he isn't interested in crocheting, sewing, karate, and now archery the way I am. He's busy building his wonderful little company and taking care of the family. I used to feel bad that I wasn't interested in video games and music the way he is. But now I don't feel bad about that at all. I like that he has his things he likes to do, and I enjoy hanging out and watching him play video games or practice music. He comes to watch me do karate sometimes, and he complains when I stay up too late crocheting. It's a very healthy, happy dynamic, and adds a layer of interest and fun to our relationship!  It keeps the magic and mystery alive. 

My latest new hobby that's actually a very very old one, is the ancient craft of archery. According to paleontologists, the invention of bows and arrows was in the Paleolithic period, about 71,000 years ago.  According to the Bible, it was probably soon after Adam and Eve's kids began to quarrel that the bow and arrow were invented. It's conjecture of course, but I can imagine that after Cain bashed Abel's head in with a rock, his brothers invented bows to keep him at a distance and then he invented bigger bows to keep them out of his city. Anyway, the bow and arrow has been used for centuries, and the simplicity of it as well as the skill, craftsmanship, and connection to our ancestors fascinates me. My Dad has enjoyed archery since he was a boy, and even though he never became expert he is a natural marksman.

I was in Scheel's last week without the kids, for a business meeting, and so happened to have some time to kill. I had been wanting to try their recurve bows for months, ever since I bought Bella her first bow for her birthday last year. I can't shoot her bow because it's too small of course. But I have been wanting to find more activities to enjoy with my children, and I used to be very interested in archery years ago and practice with my brother's compound bow. So I found an extremely helpful employee who went over bow options with me, and let me try out several in their shooting gallery. I fell in love with a gorgeous inlaid 45 lb recurve bow with maple limbs and a layered dark walnut grip. It was surprisingly inexpensive and I bought it on the spot. When I came home with it, my Dad became so excited and asked to go shooting with me. Since he moved in with us last April, even though we see each other all the time we don't really "do" anything together besides church. We went shooting at the free Bear Creek range, and it was SO much fun!!!!! Bella enjoyed using her bow and I promised Lizzy if she learns to shoot with Bella's bow I'll buy her one too. 

I like archery for so many reasons. The pure athletic challenge of it, the skill required, all the fine tuning needed to attain a consistent shot, the fact that it's a totally safe weapon because my kids can't even pull my bow and so they can't accidentally shoot anything, and also how it's nice and quiet. It was an incredibly bonding experience with my Dad and my kids, with Bella and Lizzy taking turns and Oliver handing us arrows. I look forward to taking TJ with us when he gets any time at all off work!