Black History Month is celebrated in February in the United States and Canada, while in the United Kingdom and Ireland it is observed in October.

Four Columns supports Black History Month and empowering women in the community.

Bobby Ray Jones Jr. is a professional basketball player, writer, and director. Jones was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2006 NBA draft. In 2009, he played for the Portland Trail Blazers. He has played professionally in Italy for the last decade. Bobby is presently traveling all over the world with his daughter and has created a vlog, Are We There Yet Dad? I catch up with him and talk about fatherhood.

Bobby, let’s talk about Are We There Yet Dad. How did the project start and why travel with your daughter? Finally, what are you trying to teach through this vlog?

AWTYD? started because I’ve always been creative and loved to travel at an early age. Since Aaliyah was born, I’ve been playing professional basketball and it has kept me away from her 9 months out of the year. When I’m back in the summer, I always make an effort to have adventures set up for us. It started as Instagram posts and stories but it was only a matter of time before I combined the three loves of my life: storytelling, traveling, and my daughter and turn it into a travel vlog. I want to inspire other parents to travel more with their children, no matter domestically or internationally.

What has fatherhood taught you?

Fatherhood has taught me to be even more responsible and not take anything for granted. Unfortunately, I’m not with her mother and so I have learned patience to accept what I can control and not worry about what is not.

Tell me something that you went through, that changed you forever and how did you overcome it?

It’s been two years since I lost my mother to lung cancer. She was the most important figure in my life.  She made many sacrifices to give me the best life possible. Losing her was one of the worst things I have ever experienced. It wasn’t easy, but I have learned to slowly to move on without her. My mothers’ death motivated me, even more, to show my daughter the world and try to be the parent my mother was to me.

Help me understand what happened on the trip from Seattle to Vancouver?

My first time in Vancouver was three years ago with some friends and I had such an amazing time. Going to college at UW, I’ve always heard good things about Vancouver but to finally visit was way overdue. After doing some research, I decided to take my daughter to experience it on a family level. We spent the day visiting Coal Harbour and went zip lining on Grouse Mountain.

What has basketball taught you?

Basketball has taught me so many lessons that apply to the court and in life in general. Having a good work ethic, communication, how to handle adversity, sacrificing, and teamwork. I was blessed to receive a college scholarship, get drafted to the NBA, and play the last 10 seasons in Italy. Basketball gave me an advantage in life but it never defined me.

How important is food, faith, finance, and family to you?

Food, faith, finance, and family are all equally important. As a result, they need to be managed properly. Life is all about balance.  In other words, if you do not find balance, stress and anxiety occur. At one point or another, I have experienced both. I did not have priorities and I’m still learning. However, creating this travel vlog with my daughter helps me tremendously; it’s my free therapy! :-

The post Are We There Yet Dad? appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Casey Palmer is an amazing blogger, father to two, husband to one, second to none, and part of the Toronto Bloggers Collective.  I have had some interesting conversations with him over the last year and he has some amazing insights into being a Canadian Dad.

Casey my brother, welcome to my blog. I have been looking forward to discussing, faith, food, family, race, and mixed marriage. Let’s start by telling me something important about you?

Hey Jerry, thanks for having me! Something important. Hm.

The older I get and the more I write, the more I figure out what I’m really about as I carve out all the fluff.

Repping for interracial families when our individual cultures don’t always really get it. Or support it. Telling stories better than anyone expects, using all the resources I have to do it. I’m a perfectionist, I’m ambitious, I’m hustling… but this all looks more and more different the longer I keep doing all of this.

I love your blog. How did it start? What is it about? What is your message here?

Thank you very much!  I’ve tried writing different blogs over the years since I first started on LiveJournal in 2002. One about making extra money on the side. An art blog with a group of other friends. But nothing ever seemed to stick until I started getting into Toronto’s Twitter scene in 2010. Back then, I’d hit events five or six days a week, get around the city, and I wrote about them all so much that a blog just followed.

In fact, I almost stopped blogging when I was about to have a kid! As I’m sure most men feel the first time, they’re becoming a Dad, I thought it’d be their end of everything I knew. I was checking off lists, tying up loose ends, and getting ready to start a new phase in my life.

But when a friend pointed out that the number of Dad bloggers out there were few and far between, I stuck around and figured I’d tell my story since no one else was really doing it.

So long story short, what is my blog about? I like to say family, food, fashion, and faith. And travel. And tech. And all the other random things that make up my day-to-day life as a Dad trying to balance his family, his job, and a little something on the side. I’ve worked long and hard at it, and it’s still evolving, but I think there’ll still be plenty of stories to tell in the years ahead.

Casey, is race still an issue in the GTA in the 21st century? If so how?

kisses his teeth

You know, I really wish it wasn’t, but it most definitely is.

I mean, Toronto’s perhaps the most diverse city in the world, but we’re talking about a city that’s 50% people of colour in a country that’s closer to 20% overall. To put that in numbers, of the 7.5 million people of colour we have across the country, 1.5 million of them—a whopping 20%—live inside the 630.2 square kilometers that Torontonians call home. In a tiny space that’s almost a hundred-thousandth of the land, this country has to offer.

So as diverse as Toronto might be on the surface, there’s a whole lot of Canada that still influences it in a very different direction.

As a huge economic driver for our country, people come to Toronto to visit. They come here to work. Toronto isn’t a magical island where people of all colours and creeds can simply live in harmony, separated from the rest of the world. The complex fabric that makes our city what it is constantly shifts and reshapes itself, and we can never be so naive as to think that we live in a perfect post-racial utopia.

But, it’s home. It is a city where we have access to all sorts of races and people, and that’s what I want as part of what my children have around them as they grow up.

Race is an issue in the GTA just like it is anywhere else, but at least we’re slowly willing to have a conversation about it.

Talk to me about how marriage has changed you as a person?

I was a very different person when Sarah first met me in 2007, still deep into my art and unsure what exactly I wanted from my life. Before Sarah came along, I was just a shiftless youth whose only goal was to enjoy the here and now without even thinking about the future.

But more than eight years into our marriage, I’ve learned how to be responsible. I take care of my kids, keep our home somewhere we can be proud of, and do everything I can to measure up to the man Sarah expects me to be.

Marriage isn’t easy—you can go from being deeply in love to wanting to kill each other, but if anything, it gives you some solid insight into who you are and why you do what you do.

Fatherhood is an amazing experience. What surprised you about it? 

Hands down, the thing that’s surprised me most about fatherhood is how much more complete it’s made me in such a short time!

Life was good prior to having kids, but my priorities were all out of whack. Spending too much time at the office so I could meet intense deadlines. Spending more time out partying than at home with Sarah. Fatherhood’s been very grounding, and while I missed out on my pre-kid life at first, I eventually found that I got so much more from spending time with my kids, choosing the times I was away from home much more carefully because so much of it just wasn’t worth it.

I don’t know who I would’ve become without the responsibility of parenthood on my shoulders, but I doubt I would’ve been a better me.

What do you like about Toronto? What can become better about this city?

I’ve always lived in the Toronto area, with me moving into the city proper from Mississauga next door when Sarah and I married in 2011.

And I love it! There’s never a shortage of things to do; you can find Japanese, Mexican and Ethiopian cuisine all on the same block; and it’s woven itself so deep into my being that I couldn’t imagine anywhere else as home. Anytime I’m away from this city for an extended period of time, I feel the itch to come back. The smells. The sounds. The tastes. All of its part of my city, and you can’t find a place quite like it anywhere else!

But it’s not perfect. There’s homelessness everywhere. We got into the real estate market at a good time, but the cost of living here is prohibitive for almost everyone who lives here. It’s not an easy place to be, but I wouldn’t trade it in for the world.

And yes—the offer has come up before!

I know your faith is important to you. Help me understand a little about it and how you use it in your daily life?

I didn’t start going to church until Sarah asked me to in our first year of dating. Funny enough, she worried that I might be resistant to it, but deciding to go’s proven one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

So, we currently go to an Anglican church—The Church of the Resurrection—and our family are all grown in our faith in the few years we’ve been there.

I’ve served on leadership. Sarah’s started a Ladies’ Night to bond with the women around her. We teach the Preschool Sunday School together, have lunches with the other members of our small group… we get up to a lot. But all that time with our fellow church folk manifests itself in so many other ways in our everyday lives. Like in the Bible studies we do with our coworkers on our lunch breaks. Or in doing what we can for our friends not because we expect something in return, but because it’s just the right thing to do.

I didn’t think this would be the road I walked down all those years ago, but I’m happy I’m walking it!

Give yourself some advice at 15 and 25?

15-year-old Casey Palmer. It’s 1998, and I moved from my third to my fourth year of private high school. My girlfriend at the time had moved on to another school, and I split my time between track, work, school, and volunteering.

My advice? Slow down. You don’t know it yet, but you’re a year away from a massive nervous breakdown, something you’re going to need nearly a decade to work through. You don’t need to accomplish everything under the sun to get on some 20 Under 20 or 30 Under 30 list—everything happens in its time… so take it slow.

Like they say, it’s about the journey, not the destination!

25-year-old Casey Palmer. It’s 2008, and I’ve started a fairly new career as a bureaucrat after finishing school and my time as a banker. I’ve just started dating Sarah, and I’m about to end my year at twenty-five with a stint being unemployed due to making an unwise career choice more for the money than anything else.

My advice? Pick yourself up, bro—this is not the end of you. It’s the first time you’ve been unemployed after twelve straight years of working, but I want you to know two things:

You’re about to get hired in a couple of months by some of the greatest people you’ll ever get to know, and

You don’t know it yet, but you have the capacity to build some very marketable skills. You only started your Twitter this year, and Facebook’s only a few years deep, but trust me—all that time you spend on the computer is going to change your life.

Keep working at your interests—they’re all going to come in handy eventually.

Mix marriages is a recent phenomenon? Tell me something funny that has happened in your marriage?

A story that I think best captures the difference in the Dutch and Jamaican cultures that Sarah and I put into our relationship is our first Christmas with her family, and a tradition the Dutch call “Sinterklaas”.

So just like we have Santa Claus and his elves over here in Canada, the Netherlands has Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet—a helper who helps him deliver the gifts in time for Dutch Christmas—or Sinterklaasavond—on December 5th.

Except… he’s a slave. At best. A white guy in blackface because he’s “dirty from all the chimney soot” at worst. And I knew none of this going in.

So, there we are on Christmas Eve with Sarah’s family, and her parents are doing another Sinterklaasavond tradition—handing out chocolate letters to the kids: the letters of our first names in solid milk chocolate. I remember it like it was yesterday:

Mother-in-law: “Here you go, Casey!”

Me: “Thanks so much, Mrs.—WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”

You see, right on the front of the box was Sinterklaas… and Zwarte Piet.

365 days and one long conversation on blackface later, I found my future in-laws had changed brands—to one without the questionable potentially Moorish slave on the front.

Differences in culture. In experiences. In parenting styles. There’s so much we’ve had to navigate—and so much we’re still figuring out—but all that is an entirely different story.

How do you balance food, faith, family, and finance in the 21st century?

It’s said that we should approach illnesses through prevention rather than treatment, and I kind of feel the same way about money.

Many of us start thinking about budgeting and saving only after we’ve dug ourselves into a hole, desperately trying to see what we can do to get ourselves back out.

But I’ve never been the type to solve my problems through sacrifice—I’ve said that the solution to dealing with one’s financial constraints is to make more money, and that’s precisely what I’ve tried to do with the multilayered life I’ve built for myself.

It works like this—I treat my salary from my day job as family money, and anything I make on the side as my discretionary income so I can continue living my life the way I see fit. What this has meant is that I could still feed my family well while tithing to church and giving my kids every experience under the sun. It’s meant finding the capital to invest in my business without risking my kids’ savings accounts or our mortgage payments.

Does it involve more work? Yes. Am I learning to be smarter with money over time? Sure. But ultimately, I’m finding the path I walk lets me create my best work possible while also giving everyone I care about everything that they need.

And as a husband, father, brother, and son, isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?

The post Casey Palmer: Canadian Dad appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Parenting is not easy.

Becoming a parent is one of the toughest things I have done in my life. It is also the most fulfilling thing I have done in my life. I am the father of a teenager. It does not come with a manual.  I have made many mistakes. I have also learned a lot of lessons.

Leanne Cabral, author of A Parent’s Best Gift, talks about parenting, parenting skills, parenting styles, and gives us unique parenting tips.

Leanne, please tell my audience a little about you?

I am a mother, author, speaker, and coach who loves to inspire and equip others to build a living legacy of faith by chasing after the things that matter most. I have a passion for equipping parents as they navigate the awesome task of passing faith on to their children. I encourage parents to make their invisible faith tangible so they can intentionally point their kids to Jesus and build a living legacy of enduring faith. I am married to James and a mom to four teens/emerging adults. I recently released my first book, A Parent’s Best Gift, which is available on Amazon.

Tell us about your book A Parent’s Best Gift?

The best gift we can give our kids is to live our lives in such a way that they know who Jesus is and understand His incredible love for them. While many understand this task, in theory, most of us struggle to practice applying this in everyday life. A Parent’s Best Gift reveals this process, equipping parents with tools and strategies that are simple, applicable, and absolutely doable. Discover freedom, direction, and intentionality as you begin to see this magnificent task broken down into manageable bitesize pieces. I truly believe we all want to be the parents God has called us to be and cultivate faith in our kids that takes root and grows.

Why did you write this book and tell me about your journey as a parent?

This book emerged out of my own quest to figure out a few things as a Mom. I knew that I would be held accountable for how I lived out my faith and pointed my kids to Jesus. I was desperate to find out how to do this in the chaos of everyday life. Questions like how do you make an invisible faith visible and tangible, or How do I teach my kids to pray and to hear God’s voice… drove me. This sent me on quite a journey out of which a 10-talk series emerged as well as a book. What I learned on the journey was that as parents, we are all hungry for the same information… whether you come from a legacy of faith or you are a first-generation believer, we desperately want to be the parents God has called us to be, we just don’t always know-how. This book is about the obstacles that entangled me as the Lord began to deal with my own warped views of Him and myself and then moves into how to get started to create the legacy of faith that you want to build. The last part of the book which is the largest is a practical guide on how to cultivate specific areas of spiritual development within your family, like prayer or hear God, in the chaos of everyday life. I wrote the book I desperately wanted but couldn’t find it.

You call parenting the toughest assignment why?

I call it a sacred assignment, our main thing. With all the good things calling our name we often get distracted and clouded by lesser things and we respond to the tyranny of the urgent instead of intentionally doing the things we actually value most.

Define intentional parenting?

Most of us in parenting are reactive. We respond to the things that come our way … the things that appear urgent but may not actually be. An intentional parent is proactive, knowing what they value and what they want to focus on and cultivate within their family. They have created a family mission statement so that they are very clear on what they stand for as a family and what they want to be known for. They weigh every opportunity against their mission statement so that they can weed out all the good things calling their name and focus on the great things for their family. They create a plan and carve out time to implement what they value.

Give me four practical tips to be a great parent?

Pray

Create a Family Mission Statement. Figure out what you really value as a family – what you want to be known for so you can make your best decisions

Be present … put the distractions down (phone, computer, TV)

Start date nights with your kids where you spend at least one hour of uninterrupted time alone with one child.

I have a 16-year-old. Should I be a father to her or a friend? What are the difference and the result?

Your primary role is to model Jesus to her in your own life and point her to Him. Love and prayer are our most valuable tools.

How is food, faith, finance, and family connected?

They are all ingredients needed for a healthy family and healthy relationships – they need to be stewarded well.

Food – What you put in your body matters, the healthier the food, the healthier the body.

Faith – It is the main thing… none of the others matter if this one isn’t a priority. All the rest will flow out of this.

Finances – We must start from the place of knowing that all we have comes from God, we are simply given the task of stewarding it well.

Family – This is where all the magic happens. It is where faith is lived out in the majesty and in the messiness of life. This is what matters most… how we steward the kids entrusted to us and how we point them to Jesus. It’s in the seemingly mundane and ordinary where faith and faithfulness are cultivated. It’s our primary mission field.

How do you find a balance with the above in this busy world?

We have chosen to intentionally live life at a slower pace for that exact reason… So, we have enough time and margin to focus on what really matters to us and our family. In a world that moves so quickly, we live a slowed-down life where there is room for our soul to breathe and respond to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit.

The post Secrets to Successful Parenting appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Casey Palmer is one of Canada’s most influential blogger and the creator behind Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad – Consistently Inconsistent. Casey has included Four Columns among his list of Canadian Dad Influencers – The Dads Out There Telling Their Stories.

I am grateful to be on this list, grateful to be a dad, and will persevere to be real, vulnerable, and authentic.

The post Canada’s Dad Influencers appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

What is Father’s Day?

Father’s Day is celebrated all over the world to recognize fatherhood, the importance of fathers in society, and the loving and caring men in your life. March 19 has been the traditional day to celebrate in Catholic Europe since the 16^th century. The Portuguese and Spanish brought this celebration to Latin America. North America later adopted it and celebrates it on the third Sunday of June.

Father’s Day Quotes

A girl’s first true love is her father —Marisol Santiago

Behind every great daughter is a truly amazing father —Unknown

To her, the name of father was another name for love —Fanny Fern

She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father —Harper Lee

Most people buy gifts for their dad for his birthday, Christmas and Father’s Day. Over the years you have bought him shirts, socks, and cologne, taken him for movies, to his favorite steak restaurant, and for a round of golf.

We are still in the COVID crisis so why don’t you do something different.

Here are ten suggestions for this Father’s Day which will not cost you.

Make him a hand-made gift card

Forget about the Hallmark cheesy cards. He is your one and only Father. Make it special. He will appreciate it. Your handmade card is unique and the only one on the planet.

Ask him about his childhood

Show a deeper interest in him and his life. Ask him about his background, his parents, his childhood, and his time at school and university. Go through old photographs. While he talks listen to him.

Thank him for everything

I am sure your father sacrificed at some point in his life to raise you. Tell him verbally how grateful you are to have him in your life. Thank him for everything he has done for you.

Serve him

Give your dad a break by serving him and taking something off his to-do list. Go over and clean his home, his car, declutter the garage, clean the grill, or just hang out with him.

Praise him

This is the time to focus on his strengths. Was he a kind and patient dad? Then let him know.

Play a board game with him

If your dad is into any board game or hobby, show an interest in it by getting involved.

Go for a walk

Father’s Day is in the month of June. The weather is great. Go for a walk with him. Tease him, talk to him, tell him one of your favorite memories of him with you during your childhood.

Make him a playlist

Ask your dad in advance what his music taste is like and create a playlist for him.

Forgive Him

There is a reason I have left this until the end. Some of you have an estranged relationship with your dad. I get it. The third Sunday of June comes and goes without much fanfare. Your dad divorced your mom, he left your family for another woman, he never provided, he was an alcoholic, he abused you or he was never there emotionally for you. The list goes on. You have been on a roller coaster of anger, resentment, depression, low self-esteem, and self-doubt.

Forgiveness is letting go. Let the negative feeling and emotions go. Yes, he has not changed. OK, I get it. If you cannot change something, change your attitude toward it.

Try to find something good in him. Then write a letter, a note, a text, an email or just call him and make peace. It will free you and you will be empowered.

I am going to end with a few verses from a poem called The Power of Forgiveness by Pat A. Fleming.

Some people view forgiveness,
As a virtue for the weak.
An act of Mercy undeserved,
That serves no useful need.

They’re focused on how they’ve been wronged,
And won’t be made the fool again.
So they feel they must avenge themselves,
By refusing to give in.

They will sacrifice their family,
Or forsake a long, time friend.
Do anything they have to do,
To be the winner in the end.

Or perhaps it’s that they can’t resolve,
The depth of all their hurt.
Caused when someone that they’ve trusted,
Left them questioning their worth.

But no matter why the struggle,
Out of pride or out of fear.
Not being able to forgive,
Can cause the loss of ones most dear.

Yes, forgiveness is a virtue,
They even say it is divine.
But more than that it sets you free,
From what weighs you down inside.

The post 10 Free Gift Ideas for Father’s Day appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.