The Tree on the other side of the Field

At the age of thirteen I was taught to plough a field by a Polish Exile of War, Dick Sompolenski, who worked his ‘captivity’ on a farm in England.

I had watched him ploughing many times and had walked alongside the heavy Shire horses and the massive two-furrow plough quietly churning the topsoil to create a bed for next season’s crop seed.

One day he told me I was going to plough the field. It wasn’t a big field, perhaps a couple of acres – less than two days’ work for an experienced ploughman if the ground was reasonably dry and the going wasn’t too heavy.

I was not confident of my ability to do the job. Just holding the plough steady was hard work. Controlling the horses and guiding the machinery at the same time seemed more daunting from the handles of the plough than it had ever seemed when I was walking alongside, chatting to Dick.

He watched me struggle to maneuver the equipment and order the horses at the same time. After a few yards, I was exhausted. Dick stopped me and came over.

“Now,” he said kindly, “you’ve got a wonderful team of horses and one of the best designed bits of farm machinery in the land. Let them do the work for you. You have only one thing to do. Find a tree on the other side of the field. Fix your eye on it. Do not look away to see if the horses or plough are doing the right thing. Trust them, they are. Just keep that tree in view until you reach it. Then you will have ploughed a straight furrow and the rest of the ploughing you do will follow your true line.”

That night I lay awake thinking about what Dick had said. His advice was right, not just for ploughing a field but for everything I did in life. As long as I kept my eye on The Tree on the other side of the Field, I followed a straight furrow. Sometimes the tree changed, of course, as life developed. By the time I was eighty I had had seven Trees. And I still have one firmly in view.

Occasionally I forgot to keep my eye on the tree and got distracted by other matters. But as long as I kept my target in view I worked my way towards it. And if I couldn’t find a Tree I sought a Mentor’s help so that I could plant one.

I remember Dick’s advice every day, and silently thank him for it.

John Bittleston