By Karlyle Tomms It seems like this has been a season of tragedy, both for the country and in our personal lives, because many of us have also lost loved ones to natural causes. However, nothing can compare to the grief that comes when a life is cut short unnecessarily, especially the life of a child in whom we saw such hope and promise. When it came to the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, I was doing okay with it until I saw footage of parents being blocked from entering the school

Moments of Peace Karlyle Tomms 7/30/16 Pinnacle Mountain stands alone along the Arkansas River, and from the I-630 bridge appears like a burned-out volcano in the distance. It isn’t. It takes about two or three hours to climb the mountain from the park at the base to the boulder-covered peak. The trails become ever steeper near the top, and climbing over boulders is required to complete the journey. Once there, the views are specta

By Karlyle Tomms Three words came to mind the first time I saw her –weird, strange, and goofy. She was older than the rest of us. She had at least ten, perhaps twenty, years on us, but there she stood among college students ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-one. Her hair was auburn, almost more red than brown, and she wore a floral bandanna wrapped around her head, tied beneath her hair at the back. Her hair was straight and neck-length, falling thick over the folds

The eastern Ozarks of Arkansas are not quite as grand as those to the west. Here, the Ozark Mountains begin to roll gradually into the Mississippi Delta. There are still lakes, lush forests, and plenty of rocks of almost every type. However, there are more flat pastures that are better suited to growing crops like cotton, corn, and hay. When I was a child, my grandparents still raised cotton, and some of my earliest memories are of working in the cotton fields. There was

I understand hate. I have felt rage so intense that it incites to kill. I have felt seething, malignant resentment so extreme that it...

Yesterday, my aunt was laid to rest. Cold Arkansas wind sawed at our ears as we stood beside the grave site, an omen of snow to fall later. There, beneath a sagging cedar, by a rusted wire fence, she was put down next to the man who had abandoned her with five children and a hundred dollars to her name. Faithful to him always, she kept her commitment, ‘Till death do us part,’ and kept it long after he departed. She never thought to remarry. She made one commitment only and d

Let’s get this straight. The entire human race is crazy. Every single one of us is insane right down to the very last one. There are just varying degrees of crazy, ranging from Charles Manson or Hitler at one end, to the Dalai Lama or the Pope at the other end. Most of us ramble about somewhere in the middle. Sometimes we get it right, but sometimes we get it wrong. Nobody—not even the Dalai Lama or the Pope—gets it all right all the time. So, before we go any further, cut

New Year—new beginnings. Everyone thinks about this transition every year as one year rolls over into the other. Goals and resolutions are made, sometimes seriously, most often half-heartedly. Each year, we vow to start anew, set out on a different course in life, and yet the course seems to remain the same, with only minor adjustments to the trajectory. Here we go again. What course have you planned for this year? We ask each other about the resolutions, the goals, t