Life has its challenges, and being a father compounds those challenges.  Someone has got to be the leader in the family.  The buck has got to stop with someone. Herein lies the challenge. I believe that fathers are called to be leaders in love.  Being a leader requires making decisions on behalf of those you lead that are open to question.  It also requires that you are prepared to take the ...

We recently moved house. The house we had been renting for 13 years was sold, and there was no other option. According to the USA Employee Relations Council, moving house is the third most stressful event in life, following death and divorce. Other lists put it lower, but whatever the case, it usually makes the top ten of life’s worst events. Moving house is stressful because you have to make decisions ...

I have just returned from Sydney, where we have opened several DIDs groups over the past couple of weeks. It never ceases to amaze me, the guys I meet along the way. Absolutely awesome dads who, although they struggle on a daily basis to see their kids and hold down a job, they volunteer some personal time to help other guys who may be struggling as well. It’s awesome to see, ...

(A goodbye letter written by a mate.) Dear Jane, Even though it will probably take you only five minutes to read this, if you read it at all, it took me a long time to write it. It also took a lot of courage to speak my mind and my heart. I hope you don’t see this as an attack on you, it’s not. Forgive me for my anger, it’s necessary. ...

I was 27 years old when, on my first day of teaching, I was presented with a class full of ten-year-old children. I remember thinking that I hadn’t seen or spoken to a ten-year-old since I was ten. I felt equally inadequate a few years later when I was handed my firstborn child. My knowledge of what was required of me was limited to an understanding that this creature was a ...

Transcript of Alanna Siozos’ Eulogy, April 2003 This is the hardest thing I have ever done, most likely the hardest thing I will ever do. There are so many things I can tell you about my father, but at times like these I find it hard to say anything at all. Try to imagine a love so great, a love that makes you want to dance, a love that makes you ...

A young boy sat in a science class, his eyes fixed on a beaker sitting on the teacher’s desk. The teacher’s words were muffled to the boy’s hearing as he thought of his dad and how great it would be when he was no longer busy at the firm and they could go fishing one weekend. But deep down, he feels this may never happen. An executive sat in his leather ...