Utterance - Samantha Bews

Hammering a Signpost 

In this session I was feeling overwhelmed by all the different directions my life was being pulled in.  Marg asked me to priorities them and the direction that spontaneously announced itself as Priority Number One was to do service in the support group for addicts that I belong to. 

That was a big surprise!

I stayed with the felt sense and an image emerged. 

 

From my notes:

The image is a man pounding a wooden pylon into the ground. He is in the outback somewhere. He is working alone. He doesn’t mind working alone, he doesn’t need company. He is strong, assured. That is what I mean by he doesn’t need company – it’s not that he doesn’t like people, it more that he is assured about his business, he is steady, he knows what he is doing and he gets satisfaction from doing the job well. He knows small particulars about this work that others wouldn’t even consider – how to work for long hours without burning out like a firecracker, how to judge the timing of the sun, when to put down the mallet, when to pick it up again, how to work with the rhythm of the sun and the night sky. What to do if the pylon is stuck, when to change to a different spot, when to push through. It is slow work, nobody else see it, probably no-one else will appreciate it, and this is one of the great strengths of the image. It is just about the satisfaction of doing the work, he is out there with the sun and ground and the dirt and his muscles and his life lived so far. He is no-ones lacky, no-one’s fool, owes no one, is not owned. He is his own man. 

It's a terrible cliché, or should I say it is an archetype – it should be a Tarot card! 

The card could be called – 

Outback honesty 

or

Hammering a Signpost in the Wilderness.