The Understory

Understory Innersanctum is a painting by David Seacord

May 2025

On the surface is always geography. The terrain of our working lives. With perspective, the visible, tangible, pragmatic parts of our day to-day - roles, responsibilities, relationships, behaviours, processes, measurements.

But beneath, there is always a geology. The Understory.

The understory is the domain of the invisible forces that shape what appears at the surface. In social situations - the underlying driver of the patterns of behaviour.

The understory is our story. The story that we use to survive, to keep ourselves safe, here amongst these others. It's the story that gives our lives meaning, satisfaction, fulfilment, reward - or denies us these things. It shapes how we see ourselves and how we see others and the wider world. It is the hidden animator of our working and living, moment to moment.

Everyones story is unique.

Drawn from our individual experiences of our world. And what we have made of them.

But I see archetypes, themes, recurring patterns.

Perhaps your understory is a particular flavour of ...

I'm not good enough

or

I'm the hero, the rescuer, or the difference maker

or

I don't belong

Whatever your story, its got you here! It's been a superb survival mechanism, at least. But it's just a story. One that you've made up out of all your experiences and entanglements of the past. Often at times in your life, when you weren't really qualified to make those sort of judgements, assumptions, decisions. Nevertheless it can feel like it's really you. Or maybe just a part of you. Are there other parts?

But the understory, can become the only story. It can be stifling, controlling. Rather than writing you own story, the story can write you! You can find yourself acting in ways that you don't understand. Not only in your life but in the lives of those around you. And your story can become a powerful attractor for others to step into their roles, in your story. Your cast shows up.

It might be a wonderful story, but it's limiting if it's the only story. If it's the only way you see yourself. It limits your choices, your possibilities, your responses. So it's good to step away from it from time to time. To shed the story that filters the reality you see. To meet at your reality as it is. Without the goggles on. And at the territory beyond your own story, to other stories, other parts, that you might like to explore.

It's good to empty yourself of that story. The story you've told yourself for so long. And to play again with a blank piece of paper. And to appreciate other stories and other people stories.

Curious about what otherwise unseen possibilities might lay ahead.