Update:
After lunch on Sunday, I headed to the woods. I really haven’t been out to the woods since
early last fall prior to becoming ill which ended up with my left leg
amputation. I decided to go to the
county land where I normally go hunting.
It was pleasant just going back out there where I have spent so much
time enjoying nature. I went with three
goals: 1) shoot a rifle left-handed, 2) practice shooting my bow left-eyed, 3)
practice walking in the woods with my boots and walking sticks.
Shooting my rifle left-handed and my bow left-eyed has been precipitated
by the damage to my right retina. I was
hoping that by hunting season my eyes would have responded to the monthly
treatment that I have been receiving and I could hunt normally this fall. While my eyesight has improved, I certainly
am not going to be able to hunt using my right eye like I had hoped. The doctor hopes that my vision might be
restored; but we are working so that it at least doesn’t deteriorate any
further.
After decades of shooting right-handed, I knew I needed some practice
just to get used to holding the rifle in my left hand. In deer hunting, you normally only get a
fleeting moment or two to recognize the target and shoot, so I was working at
comfortably getting a good sight picture through the scope and quickly taking
the shot. I used my .22 mag rifle on
this first outing so that I could put plenty of rounds down range for the least
amount of money. I was very pleased with
the results. I know that I will have to
go out a few more times before hunting in November but I am already comfortable
enough that I am certain I can do it. I
have a bolt action rifle so it is a bit awkward working the action and the hot
brass tends to hit me in the chest but it is doable. Besides the goal is always “one shot-one kill”
so it should work out fine.
Now since I can’t use my right eye to aim my bow, which is a bigger
challenge. I have a right-handed bow and
you can’t just switch hands with it—it is not built to be shot
left-handed. So I had three options: 1)
extend the sight so that I can use my left eye while shooting with my right
hand, 2) purchase a left-handed bow, or 3) purchase a crossbow with a
sight. So far I’ve elected to try option
#1—shoot my current bow using my left eye (the cheapest option). The difficulty of doing that is getting a consistent
sight-picture and having everything line up the same way every time. By shooting left-eyed and right-handed I’ve
lost one of the points of reference and I have found it is difficult to get
that consistent sight-picture. That
means that my shots vary widely—sometimes dead on and other times off by a foot
when shooting at 20 yards. Let’s just
say that Sunday’s practice has left me with serious doubts about my ability to
bow hunt in this manner. I even lost a
few arrows and my confidence was badly shaken.
Maybe with lots of practice, I might develop enough skill; but I don’t
think I can pull it off this year.
Buying a left-handed bow would solve the sight-picture problem, but it
would be an expensive option and I would still need to get in a lot of practice
to be proficient enough to hunt. This
year Wisconsin has opened the archery season up to include crossbows, so
getting a crossbow with a sight would be an option. Once again it’s more expensive to buy a new
bow but the amount of practice needed to be ready to hunt with a crossbow would
be less. All of this comes with bow
season opening in only couple of weeks.
I was very discouraged on Sunday afternoon as I realized my dwindling
options for bow hunting this fall. I’ve
found that being out in the woods in the fall is very cathartic for me. I missed last year because of illness, now I
find that I may miss this year as well. That
is a cruel blow to me.
Although discouraged after my bow practice, I went ahead and tried
walking in the woods. I was very pleased
with how that went. With the walking
sticks I never lost my balance and I felt confident and safe. I am certain that without the walking sticks
I would have stumbled and fell at least a couple of times when I went through
tall grass, over some fallen branches or went into a hidden pot-hole. But with the sticks I didn’t have any
trouble. I do have to pay attention that
the sticks themselves don’t become entangled; but walking in the woods was a
success. While I was out I heard owls
hooting and heard a deer crashing through the woods—cool!
On Monday, Karen and I filled her van with things to be dumped and then
got it emptied. I did a couple of
outside chores done after it stopped raining.
I took the plywood sides off of my one trailer and put them away, get
some fireplace ashes left from last winter in the trash and then built a small
block “patio” area for the ash cans to sit on this winter. Karen has a lot of leftover patio blocks at
her office so we had to load and tote them; but it worked well.
Afterwards I took a short ride on my bicycle. I haven’t ridden for over five weeks since I
had to let the sore that developed on my leg heal fully. I only rode about a mile because I didn’t
want to overdo it. It felt good to get
out for a ride, but it will take some time to build back up to my 8-10 mile
daily routine.
Thought for the Day:
How do you handle disappointment in your life? It is amazing how discouraging life can be at
times! Things don’t always go as planned
and it can be hard living with reality when we’ve had our heart set upon a
dream. What I have found is that often
our disappointment grows in our mind so that it overwhelms all the other
positives aspects of our lives.
Disappointment can cloud our view until it seems like our lives are full
of only dark storm clouds and rainy, dreary days. But is that really true?
Think of how easy it is to focus upon the thing we don’t have and we
overlook all the good things that we do have.
We are like kid at Christmas who received over a dozen presents. The one
toy that he wanted wasn’t one of his presents, so he is upset and sad. A teenager may have their whole life ruined
and their future destroyed because their parents didn’t buy them the pair of
athletic shoes that they dreamed of (I’m be facetious here). As an adult maybe we didn’t get the new job
we applied for. Our old job wasn’t bad;
but this job would have been perfect! We
wanted it so bad we could taste it! But
now all we taste is ashes because our dreams were crushed.
I think it is important for us to put our disappointments in
perspective. I desperately want to go
bow hunting this fall—I look forward to this time every year. But if I cannot do it my life really isn’t
over and devoid of meaning is it?
No! I have countless blessings
that I am overlooking and focusing upon that one thing that seems to have
denied me. I am not saying that it doesn’t
hurt and I won’t shed a tear over it; but none of us can afford to let the
roadblocks on the journey of life stop us in our tracks emotionally. The road that we have hoped to take may be
blocked but we can always take another route!
Even if you encounter roadblock after roadblock, with the right attitude
even a “staycation” can be as refreshing as a vacation.
I know that some of you are face some very serious setbacks and
difficulties. I am not making light of
your problems and I know from personal experience how difficult facing some of
them can be. However if we are still
living and breathing, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. Why should we concentration on the one thing
that has been denied us when there are so many other positive things in our
lives that we could be focused upon?
It might be appropriate to take some time to grieve over the loss we
have suffered; but then it is time to get up, dry our eyes, and move on. It doesn’t make any sense to waste a lot more
time on something that we can’t change anyway.
Acknowledge the loss and then move on.
I’m wishing that every dream that you have will come true. However, I know that in life that rarely
happens. So I hope that you can focus
upon the positive things that you do have and enjoy the life that you have been
given. Go ahead and make any
improvements and fulfill all the dreams that you can; but don’t let a setback
or two derail your entire life.
In what is known as the
great chapter of faith—Hebrews 11, the author lists all the great deeds of
faith accomplished long ago. There are
many victories listed in that chapter; but there were also many, what we would
call, tragic endings as well. Both those
whom we would say were victorious as well as those we would call failures lived
by faith. Some saw the blessings and
victories firsthand and some had to wait and look forward to better things “someday.”
Hebrews 11:13 “All these people were still
living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they
only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted
that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”
Whatever you face today, whether victory or
disappointment, face it with hope and trust that there will be a better day
ahead. Put your disappointments in
perspective and realize that they are not the end of the world. Once again, it is not what happens TO you
that is important, as what happens IN you.
Choose how you are going to respond to the disappointments and heartbreaks
in your life. Don’t let them decide for
you. Take time to enjoy whatever the day
brings you. Be thankful for what you do have
and don’t focus exclusively on what you are lacking.
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