I love using cards in therapy sessions. It’s not something I do every session, but it can be a great way to tap into a different way of thinking, or to help bring something into focus. The images might resonate with something going on in our lives, inspire questions and curiosity, or provoke unexpected feelings and responses. Even when people aren’t sure what to make of the card they have picked, or have no instant reaction, there’s usually plenty to explore together. There’s no right or wrong, and it’s always interesting!
Sometimes I use them for myself to see what comes up and what’s lurking at the back of my mind. The other day I got this card. Before you read on, you might want to take a moment to look at the image and see what your responses are. Remember, you can’t get this wrong! Just see what it makes you think of and whether there’s anything you’d like to explore further….
Paths, and how we choose them and create them, is something I think about a lot. How do we choose our path? Who gets to choose? Have we felt pressured into taking a path we didn’t want to take? Is there a right path? Or can we make it the right path by choosing it? Maybe there’s a ‘right for now’ path? What happens when we look back on our path and feel like it wasn’t the one we wanted to be on? Is there even really a path stretching out or do we just start the journey and create it as we go?
I really like the quote from Spanish poet Antonio Machado (so much so that I use it on the homepage of this website!) about making our own path, by walking. It’s from his 1912 publication “Proverbios y cantares”, part of Campos de Castilla. Here’s the original in Spanish:
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.
And here’s a translation, done by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney:
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
Source: Poetry Foundation/There Is No Road (White Pine Press, 2003)
I like the way it suggests the agency we have in our path-choices, that there isn’t a pre-determined path that we have no choice about, and, although it can feel quite a sad concept, the notion that we can never travel the same path again. There’s a loss associated with the moving forwards, but at the same time it’s still visible and we can still carry the memory of that earlier path with us.
I’ll no doubt write more about paths before long, as it’s often a central theme of psychotherapy and it’s a topic I love to reflect on: the way we might take different paths at different times for different reasons, the way we might be ready for a new path, the way we can learn to look back at the path we chose with compassion and respect, instead of regret.
For now here are a few paths in and around Penrith – full of potential for exploring and way-making!
If you’d like to talk about your life path and the choices you’ve made or need to make, in a supportive and non-judgemental space, it could be a good time to consider booking some counselling sessions. It would be a privilege to share the journey with you! See here for details about how to book.