Funkalicious Crazy Beautiful Weather

Su-POS-sedly, it was our Oklahoma Native son, Will Rogers, who coined the phrase:

If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, just wait a minute.

Monday afternoon, Gary England, our renowned meteorologist who was made quasi-famous by his background broadcast of the tornadic activity in the blockbuster movie, “Twister,” began sending tweets back-to-back-to-back.  I won’t belabor the details, but they basically happened in a sequence like this: Oklahoma is getting stormy. Now it’s turning into weirdness. Okay, now it’s hail. Oklahoma City and Edmond now receiving a blanket of pea-sized hail. Okay, we’re all clear again.

Evidently, Blake Brown was driving across Oklahoma City midtown just as the storm was breaking up.  He captured this beautiful image of the storm dissipating over the city just as quickly as it had come:

 

Oh, sci-fi movies…your special effects don’t have anything on reality.

[kelly]

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Losing Two: Kim Tiderman’s Story

I wrestled with whether or not to write this particular post. The only reason I’ve moved forward, I’ve decided, is because the Red Dirt Chronicles community is so much larger than any one of our contributors’ individual circle of acquaintances. Therefore I thought this post and video could be helpful to someone, somewhere.

Four years ago I received a call from my parents.  They asked me, “Has Drew called you about Kim Tiderman’s family?”  I had no idea what they were talking about and had to ask what he meant.  Evidently, my daughter’s boyfriend at the time (he’s now my son-in-law) had family members who were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver and they were sharing the news.  My father was an elder in Kim’s church and he received the news through those channels.

Ugh…this was so hard.

It was an extremely difficult time that rocked Kim’s family and the whole Tuttle community.  And although I was on the periphery, it was hard for me to watch the pain experienced by Kim’s family members and loved ones.

It’s been four years since that wreck, and Kim recently told her story on a faith-based TV station.  I thought she did a good job, and I thought that if someone had recently experienced a tragedy, it might be helpful to share something of this story.

And, if you are one of those who needs to hear this story because you’ve endured a great loss, then I’m really sorry about that too.

[kelly]

 

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On the Horizon: Oklahoma Prison Reform

Growing up I remember seeing the Department of Corrections workers on the side of the road, picking up trash and pulling weeds. I always wondered what they did to get where they were. As I grew older, I found out they likely were involved in drugs and alcohol or minor assault cases. Time passed and I saw the number of inmates increase each time I encountered them, and I heard local politicians complain about prisons being overcrowded.

In this week’s video blog we continue our look at prison reform in Oklahoma. Our Rob McClendon sits down Speaker of the House, Kris Steele, to look at an issue he takes very personally.

~ Andy Barth

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My Little Victory Garden: Gillyflowers and the Circle of Food-Life

I stood over the sink during the second wash. Most of the dirt was already down the drain and I was now searching for dried sections on the onion shoots. I had just pulled about forty green onions from My Little Victory Garden so Mick could help me get the dirt ready for early Spring planting.
Here is what a clean, fresh palette looks like to a garden artist. Wow...imagine the possibilities!
I continued to clean the lettuce that had grown over the winter, but it was rough, tough and not really great to eat. I decided to give the deer a treat so I washed it up a bit and left it over the back fence for them to find tonight.

Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Gillyflowers and the Circle of Food-Life

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Julianna

At the end of this post, you’ll find a photo of Julianna. She was one of my students during her undergraduate years.

She then decided to serve her internship in Oaxaca, Mexico doing really cool work for an important program that served needs in that area.

Then she became a marriage and family therapy student; I filled in as Interim Clinical Director for that program over the course of a few months. I also supervised the students for about two years while they grew into new professional therapists.

Then I began working with her side by side in order to provide a portion of the services provided in couples retreats for vulnerable and stressed populations.

Then she became one of our RDC contributors, writing a series called the “Not So Newlyweds.” Julianna is an excellent writer. She’s better than me when it comes to constructing sentences, form, consideration of her subject, etc. I love it that she’s a stronger writer than I…it makes our blog a better project.

So today, I was looking across the room at what is now my eighth year of providing couples services at these retreats, and there she was – looking over the first file and preparing for her session.

Julianna is a strong, beautiful and thoughtful woman…and I feel happy and sentimental to have watched her grow into that person.

Julianna – you’re extra cool.  And I just wanted you to know that I think so.

[kelly]

 

 

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