I have decided to give our Men's Group a new name: The "You Want Me To Join a Men's Group" Men's Group. This is the first thought that usually goes through a man's head when I ask him to join our group. Of course, it is not what he says. Most men, say very little. Mainly they have a bit of a scared or confused look on their face. And that's ok! These are exactly the men that we are hoping will join the group. Most men in our society have not learned about the tremendous benefits of sharing their personal stories with other men. We believe that it is essential for growth, essential to becoming a man.

This past week in our group we read from the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, and talked about boy psychology and the journey to manhood.

If you are a man who is reading this and you are not already a member of our group, we hope that you will decide to join us.

I responded to a post this morning on the Arborparents list on yahoo on the topic of boys being raised as wimps. This topic was posted in response to an article in a british newspaper.

As I wrote on arborparents, the article was saying that boys are not being asked to cook, clean, and do their part in the family. As Terrence Real has pointed out in his books, when boys are given a loftier place in the family, they are not given the opportunity to learn the basic tools of self-discipline and relationship skills that are critical to self-esteem and becoming a healthy functioning adult.

I highly recommend the book "The Courage to Raise Good Men" by Olga Silverstein, to anyone who would like to read more on this topic. Terrence Real credits her as one of his major inspirations. It is the best book that I have read on the topic of how to raise boys. I am going to add it to the "Literary Inspiration" list on the Growing Together web site.

Welcome to my blog! It is 11:15pm on Saturday night after a long fun day with Cynthia, the kids, my sister-in-law Theresa and her friend Mike. We went for a hike in the morning and swam in Big Portage Lake until 8:30pm. Growing Together is off to a great start. We will be at the Natural Family Festival in Chelsea on Sunday, July 8. This will be the first time that we are exhibiting at a festival or conference, so we are very excited.

I am also looking forward to our weekly Men's Group this Sunday. We are expecting a new member for the second week in a row. Last week's group was co-led by Michael Andes, who has been facilitating Men's Groups for over 30 years. It was great to have Michael's energy and wisdom in the group.

I am thinking about writing a book or at least an article to get started. The tentative title is "Grow Up! A Practical Guide for Adult Boys and the Women Who Love Them." I would love to hear your thoughts on the title.