An Interview with Dave Bowers

INTERVIEWER:  "What would you like to share about yourself, Dave?"

DAVE:  "For as long as I can remember, I've always been fascinated with Native American Culture.  I grew up listening to my grandfather tell tales of fighting off Apaches with his grandfather in the early 1900's.  As a kid, I was always losing myself in novels about adventures, dreaming of being a strong warrior. When I discovered Louis L'Amour, I learned even more about the ways of the American Indian.  It was the details in the novels that gripped my attention, and filled my imagination with endless hours of exploration. By the time I met and married my first and only girlfriend in 1999, I had acquired a variety of music and art. I realized through her eyes, that I was already living like an Indian."

INTERVIEWER:  "What would you like to share about your wife?"

DAVE:  "I have a fond memory of one of our first dates.  We were walking a coastal nature path on a misty afternoon. She had her arm in mine, and our feet were crunching noisily on the gravel as we were chatting about many things and the seagulls were squawking loudly as usual. A short distance further, I stopped short. Sherry seemed to have not noticed that the squawking had stopped, nor that there no sound within the forest before us. I motioned for her to stay where she was, as I proceeded into the dark forest. My steps no longer heavily crunching the gravel, but lightly pressing ahead quietly, my eyes adjusted to the dark forest, piercing ahead at whatever loomed ahead. Suddenly I stopped. There before me was the most awesome sight.  Without a word, I motioned for Sherry to join me. Once Sherry got beside me, I gestured in front of us... "Do you see him?" I asked. I waited for Sherry's eyes to adjust, then smiled when she suddenly gasped. There before us was a tall and strapping bull elk and behind him were several females and calves. Sherry looked up at me, beaming from ear to ear, then watched with awe as I approached the elk, and spoke barely above a whisper to him. I could not understand what compelled me to do this, and I don't remember what I said, but we eyed each other for what seemed an eternity, before the elk turned and retreated into the thick of the forest. But, before he disappeared, the elk looked over his shoulder at me, and he literally bowed when I pressed my hand to my heart and extended it out to him in the native way... and then he was gone."

INTERVIEWER: "What would you like to share about how that moment changed your life?"

DAVE:  "Sherry says that moment fixed it in her mind that I was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.  She says that I am a completely different man when I am one with nature.  She is the only one who has seen that side of me.  It was only natural that I'd want to continue to let her a part of my life.  Four children and 12 years later, Sherry has given me the courage to be the "chief" of my "tribe", embracing each new day with eyes that seek out the Creator through His Creation."

INTERVIEWER:  "What would you like to share about your relationship?"

DAVE:  "During our marriage counseling, our counselor asked us to pick out a verse for each other, to claim over our relationship, as a foundation to build our marriage on.  Sherry picked Deuteronomy 32:10-12 "In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him."  Whenever I feel like I've lost my way, and I have many times, Sherry always reminds me of this verse.  It encourages me that God has a plan for me, that I don't need to despair, and that He sent Sherry to keep me focused."