I found an interesting quote somewhere:

Don’t measure yourself by what you accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

I am not sure if I agree or not, but I found it an interesting notion for the moment and I’ll continue to analyze it until I can file it under one of the categories… Most of us might have a good idea of our own ability, but there are definitely people out there that think too much or too little of their abilities – and then what? Even if you know exactly what you can do – wouldn’t it be frustrating to not be able to accomplish all you want or need? Especially knowing you could, given the context would have been on your side.

Maybe that’s the message – get the context on your side. I know better than to decree it as a pure truth – sometimes it’s impossible to do what you want/need, sometimes the context is beyond your control. But I would also be one to recognize the North-American society (the Western societies in general) as one of the opportunities.

And so I start my day – wondering about this quote… it’s actually a nice feeling to be able to wonder

If I ever make up my mind about the quote I’ll let you know. Until then – I’ll try to accomplish as much as I should

I am reminded almost every day that life is precious and we should never take one second for granted.

I met lots of wonderful trapshooters during the past years – and unfortunately, I also heard of lots and lots passing away. I knew very few personally, but the threads on trapshooters.com are always rich with amazing support for the ones that lost a loved friend or family member.

Almost every week there will be a mention of yet another trapshooter that’s now playing in Heaven(ly) competitions…

And every time I read about them I pray for their family and friends and I also remind myself how grateful should I be to ‘be alive and well’ like Kenny Chesney says in his last song.

This past summer I have been touched more personally by this type of loss – first when Mark Edmonson lost his courageous battle with cancer, then more recently when Indiana’s John Gould died quite suddenly… While I wasn’t a close friend to any of them, I just loved being around both. Mark had an amazing personality, and Mr. Gould was for sure a figure on the range. We met Mr. Gould back in 2007, in Michigan, and every year we will chat at all the shoots we found together (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania)… this year I was wondering at the Cardinal shoot where would he be (it’s impossible to miss him and for the whole week I could not see him), just to come back home and find out he’s sick… and in a matter of weeks, he was gone…

I was sad (still am)- now I’ll never hear their laugh and I’ll never admire the turquoises (Mr. Gould was wearing amazing silver/turquoise jewelry… and this is a very less-known fact about me: I am quite crazy about jewelry and I am completely nuts about turquoise, they are my absolute #1 stone; if you’ve ever seen me in one of those Trade posts up north, where they display native jewelry…) – now whenever I’ll go to one of the Ohio / Penn / MI shoots and walk the vendor lines I am bound to remember Mr. Gould (one of the vendors sells the type of silver/turquoise jewelry he used to wear). And whenever I go to Hamilton GC I will remember Mark…

This sport being one with a very high age average I am also bound to be touched by loss every now and then. A constant reminder of what friendship should be: a gift we handle with care, we wrap with emotions, and we give with love. A constant reminder that life is to be cherished for the present moment, and not waited around for the next ‘perfect’ moment. A constant reminder that we are not forever, but our memories are and what we do with our life (in those daily little moments) is important, because that’s what we will leave behind us: memories.

So the task for today is simple: find a loved one and tell them you love them. Then repeat

And, of course, make sure you See one, Smooth to one, then Smoke one!

Amazingly enough, it’s already October – even worse: halfway through October!

I have been away from the range for a long time and with the cold weather setting in so early this year, I believe my range days are over until spring. I am not a fair-weather person: I don’t mind wind and rain, not even snow – but I do have a medical problem with the cold and so I prepare for hibernating.

How does a trapshooter hibernate? Well – the ones that can afford it (time- and money-wise) will move down south, mostly around Silver Dollar (FL) or in Texas / Arizona. The ones that didn’t reach the retirement phase yet will have 2 options: either do nothing over the winter or do something! OK, ok – I’m getting there… stay with me.

Last year I kind of took the first route – doing more or less nothing. Sometimes it’s simply impossible to stretch the day anymore and that was my last winter – un-stretchable. But I wasn’t very happy with this ‘doing nothing’ activity so this year I plan to do something. What? Here comes in handy to have the coach close by 🙂

For a start, I would like to set up some time every day to mount the gun. Nothing else – just mounting the gun. It’s important to get dressed like you’ll do over the summer and just do the usual task of mounting the gun 1,000 times… And what in the peaceful world would you achieve with this? Oh – a lot, in fact. First of all – you’ll develop (keep active) the proper muscles. Then – you’ll also develop muscle memory. And that will build your confidence – once you return on the range you took out the ‘do I know how to mount my gun?’ question. Of course you do, you never stopped doing it! And having the confidence – as most of you know – is 90% of the game 😉

Once I figure out how much more time I will have in the day – I will move on to practicing my swing. And with that – practicing being patient – which will be funny to watch, I’m sure. If you have a person that doesn’t have too much time to start with… how will you make that person practice patience?! I am not 100% sure yet, but I’ll keep you up-to-date on my progress.

Now that I have shared my plans with the world – I will feel obligated to follow it… or so I hope.

Until next time – if you are out there: be safe and break them all while having fun. If you started to hibernate – maybe you can build yourself a plan to keep in touch with your best friend (I’m talking about the shotgun).

And whatever you do – keep the fun in it!