Healing Begins… Removal of the Archery Targets

Hearing sounds coming from my archery range? Furniture moving around by itself? No, way… that’s pretty creepy!

Three years after Jim died, I decided to create an additional income stream by remodeling half of my walkout basement into an apartment. The apartment provided me with extra income and a sense of security… knowing someone else was living in my house, and not just my two children and me.

When Jim was alive he was an avid recurve archer. One of his dreams was to compete in the Olympics. Earlier in his life, he’d missed an opportunity to pitch for the Minnesota Twins, (he had a 97 MPH fast pitch) due to circumstances beyond his control. When we first met, he told me the long, sad story, as he lamented the regret he felt. Setting his sights on competing in the 2008 Olympics was a dream he held onto until he died.

He told me, shortly after we were married, that if we were to purchase a house, he would need to have an archery range in the basement. After he died, the archery range became the “keeper of all things”. These items didn’t have a place upstairs, where the boys and I lived. In other words, it was full of Jim’s hunting clothing, archery targets and bows, extra furniture, memorabilia… you get the picture.

One evening, shortly after a new tenant moved in, he stopped me after work and asked me if I had ever heard any sounds coming from the archery range. The range was adjacent to his apartment and no one had a key to it except me. The evening before, he’d heard furniture being moved around. I told him that recently, I’d heard what sounded like arrows hitting the archery targets, like I’d heard when Jim was alive, but never furniture moving around.

Over the years, I thought the “thud” I’d heard, as the arrows met the target, was a figment of my imagination… wanting to believe Jim was still in the range, shooting his arrows, as I tried to fall asleep in our bedroom above the range.

Much to my surprise, my tenant asked me if Jim was upset that he was living in our house. I found that question to be a bit odd. Since I was just starting to work on developing my intuition, I asked Jim if he was upset about the new renter. He told me he was fine with the renter living in our home… in fact, he had been instrumental in sending him to us. I told Jim he was scaring the tenant and disturbing his sleep... he needed to stop moving the furniture around. That night, I reassured the tenant that Jim wouldn’t be bothering him anymore.

The following day, I decided it was best to donate the archery targets to the local archery range where Jim was a member. I contacted a few of JIm’s archery buddies to discuss the target donation. They were thrilled to have Jim’s beautiful, handmade targets that graced our archery range for so many years. They knew how much time, energy, and thought Jim had put into the creation of these incredibly sturdy targets.

I knew releasing Jim’s targets would be difficult for me, but I didn’t know, to what extent, until they were safely loaded into the pick-up truck and on their way to the clubhouse. Sadness engulfed me, and tears began to flow, as I sat in the archery range, looking at the empty places where the targets had been. Suddenly, I realized I had released a huge part of Jim, along with my heart. The targets were gone and they weren’t coming back… just like Jim.

Blessings Embraced:

• Connecting with loved ones is healing.

• Releasing begins the healing process.

Affirmation: As I release the past, healing takes place.