70th letter from Mihai

Tue 16 Dec, 2025 Colmar, France

Hey Reader,

I’m writing this from my desk, which looks different than it did a week ago. Over the past days I’ve been decluttering both my physical and digital space. Old notes, book highlights, saved articles, links I never came back to. For the first time in a long while, they’re now in one place, in a system I can actually use.

It’s not perfect, but it works for me. And something in me relaxed when I finished.

That timing matters, because just before starting this letter, I accepted a job.

It’s a role that lets me stay in the cycling and travel world I know well, but in a different way than before. I’ll be planning trips remotely, working mostly from home, sometimes traveling to explore new regions or assess routes, and occasionally guiding to check quality. It’s work I enjoy, in an industry I trust, with a structure that feels much more compatible with family life.

For a long time, this is exactly what I said I wanted.

Seasonal guiding has been meaningful, but it’s also fragile. If you injure a finger, you can’t work. If you’re away, you’re really away. As a father, that started to feel heavier every year.

Accepting this job feels like choosing more ground under my feet.

What surprised me wasn’t the relief. It was how hard it was to say yes.

I can see now that a big part of that resistance came from my own ideas about what Rooted Dad should be, what it should become, and how it should work. I had quietly loaded it with expectations and pressure that didn’t actually belong there yet.

Letting go of that feels like releasing something I’ve been carrying for a while.

Rooted Dad doesn’t disappear because of this decision. It changes how I relate to it. Without the pressure of needing it to carry me financially, I can show up here with a different kind of energy. Less forcing, less proving, and more honesty.

And I think that matters, not just for me.

Over the past years, through these letters and conversations, I’ve noticed a pattern among many thoughtful fathers. Men who read, reflect, journal, listen, care deeply about their families, and still feel unsettled.

Not because they don’t try or don’t care, but because they feel unfinished, like something hasn’t quite integrated yet.

There’s often this quiet belief that action should come after clarity. That if you think a bit more, understand yourself a bit better, the next step will reveal itself. I’ve lived there for a long time.

But fatherhood doesn’t wait for full clarity. It changes the terrain before you feel ready and asks for leadership while you’re still figuring things out. Many of us stay in reflection mode not out of laziness, but because waiting feels safer than moving.

The cost is rarely dramatic. Life doesn’t fall apart, but it slowly flattens. Work bleeds into family time. Presence becomes partial. Doubt turns into background noise. Fatherhood starts to feel managed instead of lived.

What helped me wasn’t more information. It was choosing structure and accepting that direction doesn’t come from the outside. It comes from committing and adjusting along the way.

That’s the path I’m on now.

For me, Rooted Dad is no longer something I’m trying to turn into a specific outcome. It’s a container for integration and action. A place to digest what you already know and start living it. A way to treat fatherhood as a leadership role, not just a lifestyle identity.

I’m not here as a guru. I’m not ahead of you. I’m not selling certainty.

I see myself as a guide walking alongside you, sharing what helps me stay grounded, present, and in motion, while still figuring things out myself.

If this feels like a path you want to walk, you’re welcome here. If it doesn’t, it’s okay to step off. Choosing what you carry, and what you leave behind, matters.

I’ll keep writing from where I am, with less pressure and more honesty, and we’ll see where this leads.

One dad figuring it out, same as you.
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P.S. These letters aren’t a broadcast, they’re a conversation. If something speaks to you, or even stirs you the wrong way, just hit reply. I read every message.

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