What does it mean to make a life of paying attention and to offer that attention in service of a more beautiful, grounded, and human way of living?
In this episode of Things I Learned from My Mother, Bethany speaks with Caleb LaRue, a wallcovering hanger, painter, father, grandfather, and lifelong student of the world around him. With a background in biochemistry and religious studies, Caleb never set out to build a career in the trades. Yet what began as a practical way to support his growing family became a decades-long study in craftsmanship, curiosity, beauty, and human connection.
Through his work in people’s homes, Caleb has learned to see the sacred in the ordinary: in the way a well-loved paintbrush changes over time, in the rooms where families live with dirty dishes, treasured objects, pets, unfinished projects, and in the care people take to shape their surroundings. He reflects on the influence of his artistic parents, his unexpected awakening to color and art, and the role curiosity has played throughout his life.
For Arcadian revivalists, those seeking beauty, craftsmanship, attentiveness, and a deeper relationship with the places they inhabit, Caleb offers a practical and lived philosophy. His knowledge comes from working with his hands, entering people’s homes with humility, noticing what others overlook, and caring for what already exists. He offers a way of seeing ordinary materials, rooms, tools, and objects as carriers of memory, meaning, and possibility.
At the heart of Caleb’s approach is a simple philosophy: stay curious. Curiosity is the seed from which creativity grows. Making space to wonder is essential to becoming more fully human.
This is a conversation about beauty, faith, family, art, and the subtle ways we learn from one another. Most of all, it is an invitation to look more closely at the lives and places we inhabit, helping restore them with patience, skill, reverence, and care as we carry ourselves into each day.