Skin Deep
Bodies as moving, meandering, rivers, places of change and transformation
Northern Coho dead on the banks of Mixal Creek
It’s late November/early December in the Pacific Northwest…a time when Northern Coho make the sojourn from the Salish Sea up Mixal Creek to spawn. Each year there is something new to reflect upon. This year I am particularly curious about their dynamic bodies as I have been exploring bodies as moving, meandering, rivers, places of change and transformation. Within a short framework of a couple of weeks I can see their bodies significantly change, not only in colour but in form, as they slow down, die, and decay on the riverbanks.
I look up skin deep in the Collins dictionary, penetrating no deeper than the skin, without real depth or significance; superficial; shallow, and I can’t help but think of our consumer driven modern/dominant over-culture and all the ways we are driven to consume (use up) things, knowledge, experiences, relationships, resources, etc.
I take photos of salmon and, as wonderous as the surface of the skin is, I see its temporality as it decays, revealing the layers beneath…
I begin to see ‘skin’ more like a membrane that contains what lies below…
or a sanctuarium; a beautiful container for keeping (something)…
animating life force/embodied intelligence/wisdom
in.
“The container [skin] once held together so tightly, wants to create yet another form. Another expression from the depths of our experience”. Joan Conway
Interrupting addictions to consumption is a journey of penetrating deeper than skin, rooting down, making meaning and contact with deep waters ~ the well spring / origins of life ~ so that we are able to feel the vitality of being alive in this body; a body that animates, moves, meanders, transforms, and shapeshifts when connected to something greater and more mysterious.
I feel a pull - a longing - to carve time out each day, bring an offering, sit by the creek and accompany salmon as they prepare to die. Be still, quiet, open and curious about what I might learn about how to live in a world that is in a steady and constant state of change.
