On the day my father died, I found a black feather on my way back from lunch, standing straight up in the grass as though it had been planted there. Having been taught by some of my metaphysically minded friends that feathers are angel signs, I picked them up and took them back to my office. The feather was old and tattered. The bristles were frayed and barely holding together. A black feather can symbolize death, or the finishing of a chapter in our lives. Within an hour, my sister called...

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 spectacular. On the...

I grew up with guns. My grandpa had rifles and shotguns hanging on the walls. They were propped on ten penny nails driven just far enough into the paneling to support the weapon, and keep it out of the reach of a small child. Every year rural schools actually let the boys off a day for deer season. They were likely to skip school to go hunting anyway. In the late 1960’s, the girls protested that they got no day off. So the schools gave the girls a day closer to Christmas for shopping. It...