Salmon Carving by Kevin Paul
One fine fall day, on the Skagit River, a very unusual thing happened. Most of the time, river beaver dig a hole in the bank, well out of the main current, and pile a few sticks around the entrance. This particular beaver had built a large, classic beaver lodge right at the rivers edge just below Gilligan Creek at the fishing hole I call “Humpy Flats.” I kind of felt sorry for him knowing that it would all be washed away during the first high water.
A Swinomish friend, Kevin Paul, was with me and we had parked in the beaver’s front yard to fish. Pretty soon here came Beaver to check us out. He swam several close circles around the boat seeing if we were going to be good neighbors. The whole time, Kevin was very quiet and seemed to be very respectful of this beautiful creature and I was wondering what special relationship they shared.
A week later, I was on the river by myself and stopped by Beaver’s place to fish. There on the bank beside the beaver lodge was a most wonderful beaver stick. Beaver had cut it to the perfect length for walking and the bark was chewed off so that it almost glowed with beauty.
At that point, it was as if Beaver were speaking to my heart and saying that his people were carvers of wood and first drummers on the water. Beaver was saying this walking stick was for Kevin Paul, a carver of wood and a drummer. Now Kevin has a very special walking stick and I finally understand his special relationship with beaver.
No comments:
Post a Comment