TWENTY SOMETHING Paula Kraus wasn’t afraid to utter the wish burning on her heart, the one that seizes so many preparing to lose a loved one. The Minnesota mom yearned for some kind of indication that, though she and her dying father would soon be separated, they would remain connected. And being a Catholic, Paula […]

TWENTY SOMETHING The color-coded books first caught my eye. It’s become one of my favorite flourishes in interior design, one that always stops me in my Instagram scrolling. And here it was, on the cover of a book titled “Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday.” Four built-in shelves held coordinating books: reds, […]

TWENTY SOMETHING Fifteen years after Richard Louv’s bestseller “The Last Child in the Woods” was published, it is more relevant than ever. I’m fascinated by his insights on the “nature-deficit disorder” ailing kids. I was struck by a passage about his 1950s Midwestern childhood: “I knew my woods and my fields; I knew every bend […]

TWENTY SOMETHING It started with the Italians, whose arias rose from the balconies. They were on lockdown, but their voices rang out down empty moonlit streets. Ballads, the national anthem, improvised ditties over the barking of dogs. Cellphone footage of the singing went viral, offering hope amid the horror. “Italians are like their opera characters: […]

TWENTY SOMETHING Stephanie Weinert’s Instagram followers have come to expect unfiltered captions to go with her pretty pictures. That’s why she has amassed 7,000 followers, who click on images of her five young children and, in doing so, access her tips on skincare, home decor and liturgical living. Each one is offered up in the […]

TWENTY SOMETHING I’m beginning the new year with a clean office. It seems a good place to start, a practical way to set me up for any other resolutions I make. My office used to be meticulous. Early in our marriage, my husband surprised me with a u-shaped mahogany desk he’d found on Craigslist. It […]

TWENTY SOMETHING Robert May was painfully aware of the distance between his dreams and his reality. The 34-year-old Dartmouth graduate had long fantasized about writing the great American novel. Instead, he was working a mediocre job as an ad man for Montgomery Ward, cranking out forgettable copy about silk sheets and white shirts. He lived […]

TWENTY SOMETHING It’s become a four-generation tradition to head south of the cities and take in a small-town celebration of fall. Our route winds between soaring bluffs and a shimmering lake. It feels like a narrow passageway, a tunnel back in time. We perused antique dolls at a whimsical toy store in Wabasha, Minnesota. Grandma […]

  TWENTY SOMETHING “We ate our honey. We ate a lot. Now we have no honey in our honey pot.” With those 17 words, averaging just three letters in length, Jan and Stan Berenstain launched their legendary book series. They were using the methods Dr. Seuss had coached them on: rhyme, repetition, short sentences. As […]