The Amber Waves of Grain

As a Californian, it is mighty strange for me to drive by waves and waves of golden grain (yes they're GOLD not amber). In Oklahoma, there are hills of gold further than the eye can see. I know its smaller than I think it is, after all I can drive past a wheat field in less than 5 minutes, but if I stopped the car, got out and just looked as far as I could, I couldn't begin to see where the field ended. Even when I got out binoculars, I still couldn't see the end of it.

The wheat itself really does “wave” like the ocean waters. If you look at it from a distance or from above, you can watch the ripples scatter across the prairie. Even the sound is very ocean-like. The wind is always blowing in Oklahoma (a local told us that since Texas sucks and Kansas blows, its windy in Oklahoma). The kernels and stalks russel and then each other and cause a russeling sound against their neighbors, and like dominoes, soon the whole field is making the ocean rush sound. Its tides rise and fall with the wind that gets faster as the sun heats the ground and then falls to a slow, gentle sweeping when the sun sets again. I know that people with trouble sleeping often listen to white noise music, of which, a popular choice is the waves at the beach. At night here in Oklahoma, with the wind blowing gently, the crickets and locus chirping, I can easily see these fields as another therapeutic choice.

The wheat fields are there simply to be harvested for grain. Bread, BAH. Starring at the sea of gold, its hard to me to imagine it's there to be eaten, or that you'd ever want to just cut it down. It's real beauty is in its natural state- shining, bending, singing in the wind. It's funny that such a simple thing could be so animated, so pretty in its own humble way. I think many people living in big cities will never know what their food really looked like before it was a brown and boring piece of bread. They'll never see the gold waves singing on the prairie. I really see some heavenly work in it. Even though it's subtle. You'd never notice if you weren't by yourself, with minimal noise, the beauty and sense of inner peace it can give you. God sprinkled a glittering, scenic, bountiful food for us that grows out of what would otherwise be a dry, flat dirt. It's hard not believe when you see the beauty in something as simple as a field of grain.