Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My Mother


Margaret Ellen Ryland Little, age 72, was delivered to Heaven on June 21, 2010. Her earthly journey ended in Norman, Oklahoma, after a four-year battle with lung cancer while surrounded by loving family members and friends. 

Margaret was born September 22, 1937 in Crescent, Oklahoma, to Clelland and Sarah Ryland.  She is survived by her husband of 52 years and 4 months, James H. Little M.D., three daughters and their husbands, Vicki and Steve Newby, Kathi and John Springman, Janet and David Bradford; eleven grandchildren, Michael and Misty Miller, Melissa and Kyle Springman, Jameson, Jordan, Sarah, Elianah and Isaiah Bradford, Kandice Lybolt and her husband Michael, and Dylan James Little; three great grandchildren, Leilani and Jacinda Miller and Mira Miller O’Connor. She also leaves behind a brother- and sister-in-law, Lanny and Charlene Little, nieces Kristin Herring and Misty Williams, sister-in-law Kris Ryland and nephews John and Tommy Ryland. Margaret is preceded in death by her parents, brother Donald Ryland and son James H. Little Jr.

Margaret was happiest when working and playing alongside husband, Jim. Their 1990 husband and wife world skeet shooting championship title was a favorite memory. Margaret wrapped her family and extended family of friends in an envelope of love and caring and was truly grateful for each unique member. Her beauty, love and excellence serves as an inspiration to all. She will be sorely missed.

Services will be held on Thursday June 24 at 3:00PM at the Vondel L. Smith & Sons, South Colonial Chapel, at 6934 South Western Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

Monday, June 14, 2010

Flood Warning, Canadian County

I am in Fly Creek NY with my daughter who is due to bear her first child any day now. We know with 70% certainty, thanks to modern ultrasound, that it's a girl. Her name will be Mira. Don't know what name may be on standby if Mira happens to fall into that 30% category and emerge with a stem, but should that happen, he'll only have to wear pink for about the first year or so.

While I'm out of pocket my Dear Husband Steve stayed in Oklahoma to hold the fort down in my absence, and Holy Cow, he has his work cut out for him today - I just received this post from him via Facebook: 
     
     "Raining like a heifer pissing on a flat rock here. The BX (Broadway Extension) and Turner Turnpike are CLOSED. TV telling everybody to stay put. Mike DiGacomo (street super, OKC) has his barricades and storm sewer covers floating away. The 10" tree log path has floated past the sweetbush....pans and bowls all over the trailer. Upstairs bedroom in the house tarped and running into 5 gal buckets. must empty every 5 minutes. Muffin inside and pissed off. Cookie? well, good stealth to you! No cell phone signal, but we got internet antenna. Thunder in the distance (NW of Mustang) but none locally. leak in the studio under the East wall and door threshold. bear gonow.......an intense event."

KFOR weather has an interactive radar where you can enter an address and pinpoint your actual location. It keeps looking like the rain is going to let up, but it just keeps raining, and heavily.  Reminds me of a weather joke we have in Oklahoma - "Last time it rained forty days and forty nights, they got a trace in Guymon." Yeah, Mustang is nowhere near Guymon.

Both cats have wanted to be nowhere but outside since early Spring but Muffin ran inside this morning to escape another block-headed yellow lab who came around barking at Steve. It was a different dog from the one I described in my "Not All Who Wander" blog entry last month because today's dog was uncut, as compared to the old neutered male of previous mention.  So Muffin is inside, where he does not like to be, but which he finds less distasteful than going out in the pouring rain. Cats are so funny.  Cookie can usually find a discreet place to hole up and usually stays quite dry, thank you very much, but I bet she's wet today! I hope she's okay. 

The tree log path Steve mentions - we had done some clearing and reserved a couple of tree trunks for Truth, Beauty and Goodness projects. These trunks are actually 10 to 16 inches across, and we had cut one of them into 2 to 3 inch slabs to use as stepping stones in paths where the grass hasn't taken hold yet. One set of steps was about 12 to 20 feet from the sweetbush, the next one was about 50 to 75 feet from it, and the other path about 100+ feet from the sweetbush, so any one of those would be a significant washout!

Speaking of turnpikes being closed, before I left, I promised without fail that I would keep an eye ahead on the weather when I'm traveling, and if it looked very bad, I would hold my position rather than risk harm due to a weather disaster. This situation reaffirms that determination. That interactive map on KFOR will show current weather radar for any address you plug into it, so that promises to be an extremely handy tool in addition to local forecasts along the way.

Meanwhile, here in Fly Creek, it's only overcast. Cool central NY summer day. Misty's dog, Potato, rests at my feet, while we wait for labor to begin.

Stay dry and safe, everyone!


Saturday, June 5, 2010

Prayer and Release

It came to me a few years ago that people who are healthy, happy and feel good about themselves do not find it necessary to behave badly toward others or treat others badly.  About that same time I also discovered  that as long as I'm involved with a thing, it stays with me because I'm still involved with it. For example, say there's something troubling me I wish would leave me alone. I discovered that as long as I'm trying to push something out of my life - a habit, for instance, or perhaps a pesky individual - as long as I am trying to "push" it out of my life, I still have my hands on it, and as long as I have my hands on it, it's still mine and I still have it. Another example is that as long as I am embattled with a thing - a person, an idea, a habit - as long as I am "fighting" it,  I keep it in my life by that very involvement, like Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby.  Some might relate to "giving the problem a room rent-free in my head." If I'm dwelling on a thing, embattled with it, and/or trying to push it out of my life, I am involved with it, and it stays with me. I discovered a way to release unproductive habits, troublesome people, and things that have outlived their usefulness to me.


First, about People. Follows a great prayer. I wish I could say I invented it, but I did not. I did, however, adapt it to this form. This prayer can be used in dealing with difficult people, people you don't like, people you quite frankly might wish would simply go away, but it's also a wonderful prayer for people you love and care deeply about, because this prayer asks for them to have what you'd like for yourself, what everyone wants, really - to enjoy health, happiness and prosperity. It goes like this (the name of the person you're praying for goes in the blanks):


     "God, be with ________ .  Let ________ be aware of Your Presence. I pray that Your Will be done in ________ 's life. I pray that ________ may enjoy Health, Happiness and Prosperity. Thy Will Be Done. I bless ________ with love and I release (him or her)"  


I pray this prayer regularly for people I love dearly, obviously because I care for them an want the best for them. But I also pray this same prayer for the difficult people I encounter, people I don't like, the real stinkers. 


Why, you wonder, would anyone pray such a loving prayer for a stinker?


It's because people who are healthy and happy and feel good about themselves do not find it necessary to behave badly or to treat others badly and I know that anyone who is consistently snippy, vindictive, hateful, cruel, complaining, manipulative, controlling, or practices any other sort of dysfunctional interpersonal unpleasantness - such a person is not entirely healthy, is not happy, and does not feel good about themselves. I know that if such a person can enjoy health, happiness and prosperity that they may begin to feel better about life in general and about themselves and when they are feeling better in general, they will not find it necessary to behave badly where I am concerned. I bless the person with love and release them because exactly how this prayer manifests in their lives is none of my business, and as long as I have my hand on it, it's still in my life. Bless with love and release. Let God do His job.


Notice the phrase asks that they may enjoy health, happiness and prosperity. I state it that way because most people actually have a relative degree of decent health, plenty to be happy about, if only they'd see it, and some prosperity, but may not be able to recognize how good their life actually is if they happen to be fixated in a negative mental, emotional and spiritual space. 


I can think right now of people I know who have serious chronic health problems, but who do what they can in their own behalf and enjoy what they can of life, as compared to the physically healthy hypochondriacs who whine and complain, court illness they don't have, and do not appreciate the level of health they actually have. 


Similarly, about happiness, I know people who are in dire circumstances, but they are doing what they can for themselves and are reasonably happy most of the time, as compared to the Eeyore sad-sacks who are miserable about everything, and making everyone around them miserable, too.  


With prosperity I always think of the "look good, smell good and broke" folks who live beyond their means in a lifestyle that used to be called "keeping up with the Joneses." At our house we have a one-liner, "She lives in a car, but it's a nice car."   My parents taught me to go to work every day and pay my bills first, take care of my things and appreciate what I do have, a lesson most of this country seems to have forgotten these days ... but I did not come here to preach a political sermon. The point is, regarding prosperity, a person ought to do what they can for themselves and appreciate and take care of what they have instead of living in a black hole attitude of not-enough.


It is because most people actually do have some degree of health, at least something to be happy about, and relative prosperity that I recommend praying that "________ may enjoy Health, Happiness and Prosperity" - that they may come to see what they actually already have, and appreciate and enjoy it.


Whenever I pray, whatever I'm praying for - I never hesitate to ask God for anything - deep, meaningful things, or superficial, materialistic things - anything - but I always "tap the ball back over to God's side of the net" by adding "Thy Will Be Done."  "Here's my idea, what do you think?" or  "Here's what I want, but you're the boss." "Thy Will Be Done."


And then - "I bless ________ with love and I release (him or her)." This phrase can be used for a person or a thing, a physical object or a concept or a habit - I have blessed with love and released specific persons, dear old broke down automobiles, feelings, habits of action and thought, particular circumstances - this is an extremely useful concept. I added it to this prayer because as long as I'm still trying to "handle" it, whatever "it" may be, I still have my hands on it and I still have it. I think of the child bringing the broken toy to be fixed, but he won't let go of it for you to fix. You take something to God to take care of, you have to let go of it. As long as you have your hands on it, whether it's just plain old hanging onto it, or trying to push it out of your life - if your hands are on it - you still have it and it's not going to change. You gotta release it. You gotta release it, and it goes better if you bless it with love and release it. 


Also, if you're asking for something to come into your life, you usually need to make room for it ... by releasing something. That dear old beat up car I mentioned in the previous paragraph? It was beyond repair. I needed a new car, but I had to release the one I had first, at a mental, emotional, spiritual level to make room for what was to come. If I'd a gone around cursing that raggedy old car as useless, I would probably still have it! I did love that car, though. It and I had been through a lot together. Unfortunately, it had outlived its usefulness to me and had to be replaced.  So I blessed it with love and released it an accepted a wonderful new replacement.  This process does not manifest overnight, but the trip of a thousand miles begins with one step.  Start by Blessing with Love and Releasing.


So, "God, be with ________ .  Let ________ be aware of Your Presence. I pray that Your Will be done in ________ 's life. I pray that ________ may enjoy Health, Happiness and Prosperity. Thy Will Be Done. I bless ________ with love and I release (him or her)


Don't worry if you don't "feel" these things about the person for whom you pray.  Prayer isn't so much to change the world as it is to change the pray-er. More than once have I have growled this prayer through gritted teeth for people I nearly hated. But I knew then and still know that people who are healthy and happy and feel good about themselves don't find it necessary to show their big red you-know-whats, so if their lives can improve by my praying for them, if they can come to some appreciation of the health, happiness and prosperity they have, or maybe even get more of all that, maybe they'll act nicer. It does not matter whether I like 'em or not. And even if nothing in their lives were to change (but it always has so far), something in me does change.



"God, be with ________ .  Let ________ be aware of Your Presence. I pray that Your Will be done in ________ 's life. I pray that ________ may enjoy Health, Happiness and Prosperity. Thy Will Be Done. I bless ________ with love and I release (him or her)









Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Plane Story from my Dad

I knew a little bit about the plane we kids called "The Red Baron" but I did not know all this. A huge thanks to my Dad for sharing this great story and for passing along the excellent video, and here they are:

"(The following) video was sent to me by a very close friend of mine, who is a fellow pilot, and a fellow doctor.

Long, long ago, Uncle Lano (my brother) and I bought an antique 1934 model Monocoupe airplane. The plane belonged to the widow of Rusty Herd. Rusty was a stunt pilot who flew another Monocoupe in airshows.


One day while Rusty was performing stunts in an airshow, he had a heart attack.  The plane went on flying. It made some dives all on its own and when the airspeed got fast enough the plane recovered from the dives all on its own and climbed out only to enter another dive, and another recovery.  As the plane dove near the ground, the spectators could see that Rusty was slumped over, and apparently unconscious. Many in the crowd thought Rusty was still in control of the plane, and merely faking being unconscious. However on the final dive, the plane did not recover and crashed directly into the ground.


Rusty had a backup Monocoupe in his hangar which was hated by his widow. She sold the plane to Lano and me for a measly $3000 bucks. Lano traveled to Florida and flew the plane back to OKC. When we got it home we realized it was one of only three remaining planes of its kind, so we had the plane completely rebuilt from the inside out. We had it painted Ford pickup red with black trim (16 coats of paint). An accomplished aircraft refurbisher named Tony Blackstone rebuilt and refinished the plane. It was the finest job he ever did, according to Tony.  I then flew the plane to the Oshkosh Antique World Championships, where the plane won First Place!


The plane went on to win first place in every airshow we entered it into. The plane was stressed for 9Gs, right side up or upside down. I flew it in loops, spins, chandells, falling leaves, you name it...the plane could do it.  It had a Warner 145 horse radial engine, and this model won the world air races in 1934 and 1935. I was born in Jan. 1934 so I was not able to pilot the air races. Probably because I did not have a pilot license yet.  We eventually sold the plane to another airplane nut named Don Love who lived in Kansas at the time.


The plane was delightful to fly, but a pure bitch to land because the big radial engine washed out the air controls on landing, and the heel brakes were essentially unavailable while you were danding on the rudders. We could have installed some Cessna tow brakes, but that would have ruined the originality of the aircraft making it in3eligible to win first place. Boy was it fun, though!


Jim Little


PS If you think you would enjoy flying, watch these beautiful old (renewed) aircraft fly by."





(If you have trouble viewing this here, you can click here to see the video at YouTube.)