Secrets of the Sandhills
A Nebraska Sandhills Novel
Wind, Water, and People
The Enchantment of the Hills
Bunger Lake
I stood at a distance and watched the man peer intently into the water at the lake shore. Was he looking for fish? Tadpoles? The Lost City of Atlantis? This was the third time that I caught him acting in this manner that day. First, it was the abandoned schoolhouse where he stood and stared in the window. Then we came across the rusted, tangled remains of a windmill that appeared to have been in the path of a prairie twister. He seemed to get caught in trances that continued to the place of awkwardness. Ending his momentary enchantment with the water siren, he raised his head, glanced across the lake, and then we continued our hunt.
We were nearing the end of a five day archery hunt in the western Sandhills. My hunter happened to be the inventor of a well known household product and was as close to being a billionaire as anyone I've ever known. He could purchase pretty much anything that the world has to offer, yet he was allured by the simplest elements of nature. The Sandhills were working their magic on him.
I've been guiding hunters and anglers in the Sandhills for over twenty-five years now. I've witnessed the effect that the hills have on people. What's difficult though, is to describe the emotion that people experience after a few days walking the dunes or floating the waters of this enchanting land. One factor seems to be common among these newcomers. They arrive like a twelve string guitar, tuned too high. A long stroll through the sand unwinds the tension, lowering the pitch to a baritone ballad played out as wind flows through the grass and our legs brush the sun-dried rattle pods. Soon we are stepping to the tune of an old time church hymn from our childhood. The world shrinks down to this yucca strewn solarium inhabited by meadowlarks and mule deer.
Mother Teresa may have summed it up as well as anyone: "We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls."
