Posts by Francine & Byron Pirola
Sleep Deprivation
Sleeping our way to a successful marriage Our granddaughter is three months old. She is pure delight and we are loving being Nonnina and Nonno. Naturally her parents are experiencing the ‘joy’ of extended sleep-deprivation; she is indeed very cute, but not so much at three in the morning. It takes us back. With relief…
Read MoreA marriage of contention
What seems hard in marriage is often doing us good A few weeks ago, we were invited to attend an event featuring Jordan Peterson. Curious to see this Canadian psychologist and academic, who was touring Australia with sell-out audiences, we took up the offer. One of the questions put to him by an audience member,…
Read MoreKicking the Bucket List
Some thirty years ago, before ‘Bucket Lists’ were even a thing, we came across an advertisement for The Maldives in a wedding magazine. We were engaged at the time and we fell in love instantly with the romanticism of white-washed huts on pristine private beaches. Committed to a simple wedding, and even simpler honeymoon (a…
Read MoreMarriage and the Plenary Council
Asking the Right Questions No matter where you live in the world, the Catholic Church is undergoing significant introspection and renewal. In Australia, one of the formal mechanisms is the Plenary Council – a process of national discernment culminating in a gathering of leaders and representatives in 2020. The question posed to the Australian church…
Read MoreFor Marriage and Country
Maybe it’s just us, but it often feels like the world around us is getting more hysterical about things we once would have taken in our stride. A misspoken word, a misplaced or even misinterpreted word in jest, or even a look the wrong way, can set off a storm of outrage – triggered, apparently.…
Read MoreGratitude: Plant Now, Reap Later
As we look forward to the new year, lots of us are making resolutions, setting goals, planning for the coming months. Most of our colleagues in the marriage education field are posting articles about setting relationship goals – an excellent idea, but we’d like to propose something different. It has been well established that gratitude…
Read MoreThe Smarter Way to Love
Falling in love is easy. Staying in love requires a conscious decision and focused investment. Loving the Smart way is easy when you know how. Our romance was a whirlwind of delight and passion. Over an intense two years, we courted with a dedicated focus: from the very beginning, it was clear that we were…
Read MoreA very grand Advent
It’s Advent again – the season of waiting. This year, our waiting takes on a special focus – we are awaiting the arrival of our first grandchild. Actually, Francine has been waiting for at least a decade for this child to arrive. Byron however, is still in deep denial – he’s far too young and…
Read MoreTrigger warning: there’s a landmine below
Over the previous columns we have been exploring how our formation from our family of origin can continue to impact us and our marriage negatively. In this article we want to unpack the third and final way our formation experiences play out – through emotional injuries. Some years ago, Francine purchased a new espresso machine.…
Read MoreIncompatible Expectations
I wasn’t Expecting that! Over the last few columns we’ve been exploring how our formation in our family of origin continues to play out throughout our marriages. There are typically three ways in which our formation can pose challenges for us and today we explore the first of these: incompatible expectations. Growing up, Francine’s father…
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