Archery in the backyard

So... the husband recently has purchased a bow. He briefly was trying out an interesting sport, brought here by our hungarian friends, named Kassai - where you are riding on a horse while wielding a bow. Pretty much exactly what huns dud back in the day. Apparently, it is fucking awesome. I believe it. I always wanted to do something with horses, especially when it relates to intuition so directly. (Once saw a manager's training with horses where leadership was trained. Man would I have liked to do that.) But yeah. With three kids, anything that involves driving somewhere alone for a few hours is pretty much a big deal.

But we have this kasai bow at home now. The husband has been putting out a roll made from thick cardbord outside, and firing arrows at it. He's pretty good at it, he always learns new things so fast. Doing all kinds of fancy things. But now he's away on a trip, and I figured it would be a good time to practise shooting a bit.

So, after I put the kids to bed (what basically means putting them in their room and ordering them to stay there - I don't even care a bit how long they're going to do all sorts of things, giggling and laughing, as long as they just stay in there), and found the littlest one sleeping soundly, I loaded up the bow and went outside to shoot a few arrows.

I didn't even want to do the fancy tricks like shooting while jumping or walking or such. I just wanted to hit the damn roll. Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, go back and collect the arrows. Strangely tranquil. I quickly found out that, indeed, hitting or missing mainly depended on how secure, relaxed, confident and focussed I was.

An awesome sport. Exactly what I was looking for. Still, training obviously is key.

I shot until the skin peeled from my finger. It's taped now. Works fine. Also, one time, I apparently was holding the bow weirdly and it snapped against my arm upon release. That hurt. The bruise is bright violet now.

But I finally have a sport that is really a load of fun and I can just celebrate in the back yard. As a former avid gamer, of course I always have secretly dreamed of being an expert archer, and now I can just practise it - and practise mindfulness while I'm at it.

And the nicest thing of all - when I went outside, soon I noticed my little ones appearing at their window. They had a perfect view from up there at their mom shooting arrows. They were cheering at every shot. I have my own little fanclub. This was warming my heart so much, and I just kept on shooting and shooting, waving at them between rounds, what made them cheer enthusiastically. And, on the go, teaching them about persistence and the value of practise. For one full hour they watched me shooting arrows, and going back to collect them, again and again, and apparently did not get bored of it.