Our Skin

The skin is the largest organ... how often do we feel that full-body suit we wear every moment? Close your eyes and become aware of it... a covering that delineates us, gives us shape, holds our contents, protects us, gives us the sensation of touch, the pleasure and pain of touch... Feel the whole thing embracing every nook and cranny, breathing and moving with you. Feel its weight (5-7 pounds! ), its different thicknesses (thin on the eyelids, thick on the soles and feet), the feel of the air or your clothes caressing it, the so many different temperatures it accommodates, how but how perforated it is...

If I can apply this level of vividness and observation to these few inches of my one layer, how rich the experience of each moment would be if I could observe myself all of it... so much so that it would probably be unnecessary to look at this screen... In closing, a few words from Bill Bryson:

....The outer side of the epidermis is composed entirely of dead cells. The thought is rather shocking that everything that makes you cute is dead. Where our bodies meet the air, we are all corpses. These cells of the outer layer of skin are replaced every month. We lose, almost without caring, over 1 million pieces every hour. Slip your finger on a dusty shelf and the line you make has removed pieces of your former self. We become dust, silently and relentlessly.