Articles written by Carissa Kapcar


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  • Faith unveiled in many ways

    Carissa Kapcar|Updated Mar 27, 2024

    Faith is a timely topic this week. According to Google, faith is the trust or confidence in someone or something. It's also described as a strong belief in God or the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. My own interpretation is that faith is opening yourself up, allowing something into your heart that can't be seen or proven, yet felt very deeply. It's an acceptance that we won't always have the answers and a vulnerability to trust the...

  • The ceramic Christmas tree

    Carissa Kapcar|Updated Dec 20, 2023

    Hunched into the crawl space, my eyes do a quick scan. A collection of unlabeled plastic bins are organized into sections, known only to me as "Halloween," "Easter," "Christmas," I see it. A weathered cardboard box that predates the colorful bins surrounding it by not just decades, but generations. Ever so gingerly I pick it up and squat-walk-shuffle my way out of the storage space. Relieved to be standing up straight again, I carefully open it. Beneath protective layers of...

  • Gratitude in its Swiftest form

    Carissa Kapcar|Updated Nov 1, 2023

    "So, make the friendship bracelets. Take the moment and taste it," my newly minted 13-year-old sings along as we string tiny colorful beads and letters on elastic. "Yeah, Mom, that's my favorite line," she claims. (Yes, this is a column full of love for Taylor Swift. So, if you're a hater, who's "gonna hate-hate-hate," apologies. You probably "need to just stop" - reading, that is.) The way my daughter starts the statement off with "yeah" makes me smile. It's as if she thinks...

  • Following our kids' example

    Carissa Kapcar|Updated Sep 14, 2023

    We moved to Hinsdale 17 years ago. In that time, I've grown a few kids, volunteered in their schools, engaged in the community, logged a lot of hours on the sidelines of sporting events and logged even more hours behind the steering wheel of a mini-van shuttling young passengers around to those events. Treasured friendships have been formed and professional achievements celebrated all within the friendly confines of the 60521-zip code. About the time our family moved to town,...