Alan Collier always knew he wanted to be a father.

But when his first child, Diana, was born with Down syndrome, he suddenly found himself facing a future he hadn't imagined.

He didn't know what to expect. He didn't know what kind of life Diana would have. And he certainly didn't know how much being her father would change the way he saw the world.

Over the years, Alan learned lessons he hadn't expected—about patience, accepting help, letting go of control, and discovering joy in places he might once have overlooked.

But one of the most profound lessons came through a familiar story in the Bible.

In John 9, Jesus encounters a man who was born blind. For years, Alan understood that story as one about a man receiving his sight. Then Diana came into his life, and he began to see something else.

Perhaps healing isn't always about changing someone else's circumstances.

Perhaps sometimes it's about changing the way we see.

Alan shares the heartbreaking story of Diana sitting in a chair by the front door, waiting for friends who promised to come. Some never did. But others showed up. They remembered her, included her, and made room for her in their lives.

And watching those people love his daughter changed Alan.

In this conversation, Rivers and Alan explore what it means to be a father, why accepting help can be harder than giving it, and how ordinary acts of love can change a life—including our own.

In this episode:

• The unexpected beginning of Alan's journey as Diana's father

• Why learning to accept help changed his perspective

• The surprising joy Alan discovered through Diana and her community

• How John 9 took on an entirely new meaning

• The story of the chair by the front door

• Why showing up for someone matters more than good intentions

A question to take with you:

Who in your life might be waiting for you to show up?

Because sometimes the person we think we're helping isn't the only one being changed.

The Grandpa Channel — The Stories That Connect Us All.

We believe we're all more alike than different, and that someone else's story has a way of helping us understand our own.

Explore more conversations and discover our guided reflection experience at thegrandpachannel.com.

What happens when the plan falls apart—and there’s nothing you can do to change what has already happened?

Ernest Shackleton set out to cross Antarctica on foot. Instead, his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the ice, was eventually crushed, and sank—leaving Shackleton and his 27-man crew stranded more than 1,200 miles from civilization.

And yet, every man survived.

In this solo episode, Rivers shares why Shackleton became one of his personal heroes—and what his story taught him during a prolonged and difficult season in his own life.

Shackleton wasn’t simply optimistic. He understood how to keep hope in plentiful supply while still facing reality exactly as it was.

As one crew member said of him:

“What had happened had happened. It was in the past, and he looked to the future.”

Maybe that’s something hope asks of us, too.

Not to pretend everything is okay. Not to ignore what has been lost or what we cannot change. But to look honestly at where we are—and then ask:

What now?

Because sometimes hope begins when we stop trying to change what has already happened and turn our faces toward what comes next.

The Grandpa Channel — The Stories That Connect Us All.

www.thegrandpachannel.com

Brian Sachetta knows what it's like to look completely functional on the outside while struggling deeply on the inside.

His experiences with anxiety began when he was young. By high school, ordinary moments—sports, relationships, the possibility of failure or rejection—began carrying a weight he didn't yet have words for. Eventually, a panic attack forced him to acknowledge that something was happening that he couldn't simply ignore.

For years, much of Brian's energy went toward figuring out how to manage those feelings and make them go away. And for a while, he thought he'd made it through.

Then, years later, the anxiety returned.

During an intensely stressful season, Brian was sitting across from his parents at a restaurant in Florida when suddenly the people and world around him didn't feel real. After extensive medical testing failed to explain what he was experiencing, Brian began looking at his struggle differently. Instead of only asking how to eliminate the symptoms, he started wondering whether there was something in his life he needed to hear.

That shift led him to look more closely at his work, relationships, habits, rest, and even the ways seemingly productive things—like constantly consuming books, podcasts, and information—could sometimes become a way of avoiding what was actually happening in his life.

In this conversation, Brian and Rivers talk about what we can learn from the struggles we'd rather get rid of, why listening can sometimes be more helpful than immediately offering advice, the profound difference it made when Brian's mom simply noticed something was wrong, and why he no longer assumes a difficult season means he's back where he started.

And Brian shares what he would tell his twelve-year-old self after everything he's lived through:

It's going to be hard. But you've been through hard seasons before—and that's evidence that you can make it through another one.

In this episode:

• When anxiety first began showing up in Brian's life
• The panic attack that made it impossible to keep ignoring
• What happens when a struggle you thought you'd overcome comes back
• The shift from managing symptoms to listening more closely
• When productivity and information can become forms of escape
• How to support someone who's struggling without immediately trying to fix them
• The role Brian's mom played during one of his hardest seasons
• The simple practices helping him now
• Why his question has changed from “How do I make this go away?” to “What do you need?”

About Brian Sachetta

Brian Sachetta is a software engineer and mental health author. He is the author of Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety and Get Out of Your Head Vol. 2: Navigating the Abyss of Depression. His writing draws from his own experiences with anxiety and depression and his interest in understanding how our minds work.

https://getoutofyourhead.com/

https://instagram.com/getoutofyourhead

https://www.facebook.com/getoutofyourheadbooks

Brian's first book (on managing anxiety): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L5Z6V75 Brian's second book (on managing depression): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KQ4FLBW