TWENTY SOMETHING My next-door neighbors have been packing up to move for the last month. The empty nesters are downsizing, and I’ve watched their weeks-long purge with a mix of horror and admiration. High-school letter jacket? Give. Handmade desk? Give. Barbie clothes sewn by Grandma? Give. Almost everything had to go. There was no […]
Christina Capecchi: The heart of the work
TWENTY SOMETHING The U.S. Postal Service just released a stamp that bursts with nostalgia: an homage to the beloved author and illustrator Tomie dePaola. It depicts his best-known character, Strega Nona, who earned him a Caldecott Medal in 1976, clutching her pasta pot and smiling at her peacock. The stamp inspired me to sift through […]
Christina Capecchi: Hand-me-downs, pick-me-ups
TWENTY SOMETHING It all started with a used coat. Betty Henson didn’t need her fuzzy green coat anymore, so she offered it to her son, an aspiring puppeteer. Jim stuffed and stitched it, creating a round head, a dense torso and lanky limbs. He folded a deep mouth and split a ping pong ball to […]
Christina Capecchi: Her life was a work of art
TWENTY SOMETHING Two parts reverence, one part mischief. That’s how I’d sum up my grandma, whose name — Elinor Marcella — captures her mix of poise and playfulness. She raised five kids with a kind of 1950s ease: neck bows and neatly coiffed hair, family dinners and at-home haircuts, playing Bud & Travis on the […]
Christina Capecchi: Love the house you’re in
TWENTY SOMETHING Paige Rien was in hustle-mode. Her first book had finally been released, and the Catholic mom of four was determined to market it well. “Love the House You’re In” was a labor of love, flowing from Paige’s experience as an HGTV on-air designer and bursting with the hard-won, heart-felt wisdom she wished she […]
Christina Capecchi: Learning to listen in a noisy world
TWENTY SOMETHING I have loved photography for years. And I think I finally found my niche: snow photography. Every time it snows — which is frequent here in Minnesota — I grab my phone, slip into my boots and start snapping. Some prefer their trees laced with pink apple blossoms or blazing with red maple […]
Christina Capecchi: No cell phones, no problem
TWENTY SOMETHING It started with news from Camp Wapo, the Bible camp I’d attended as a kid. The camp counselors in Amery, Wisconsin, enforce a strict no cell-phone policy: Ditch your iPhone when you arrive, get it back when you leave. My reaction surprised me. I felt relief, triumph, a sense that the arc of […]
Christina Capecchi: How to participate with the Holy Spirit
TWENTY SOMETHING Sometimes gold flakes surface along the periphery. The first or last picture in a photo shoot is the winner. The opening or final page of a book delivers the line that you hold to your heart. Or the wind-down of an interview — right after the formal conversation has wrapped up — produces […]
Christina Capecchi: The path of inspiration
TWENTY SOMETHING During his down time at work, a Minnesota surgeon often browses the New Yorker in the hospital library. One day he spotted its famed cartoon caption contest — a caption-less cartoon that calls on readers to submit captions and then vote on their favorites, to be published in the following issue of the […]
Christina Capecchi: The duty of delight
TWENTY SOMETHING Here we are, in the thick of summer, this deep and gentle place. The world is still broken, but we are given a season of delight. Sweet corn and watermelon, birdsong and bare feet and the nostalgic sensation of endless summer stretching out before us like a million tufts of cloud roaming the […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 13
- Next Page »