Leo and I – Small Things, Big Symbols: A True Memoir of Fatherhood, Healing, and the Legacy We Choose

This is not a manual. It is not a guidebook.

It is a lived story.

Leo and I – Small Things, Big Symbols is J.D. Veyne’s most personal work — a memoir of boyhood marked by absence, and a fatherhood rebuilt on presence.

Through vivid memories and honest reflections, Veyne explores what it means to inherit silence, to carry unseen weight, and to choose a different legacy. From childhood ghosts and fractured homes to cold-water rituals, trail runs, and bedtime questions, he shows how the smallest gestures can become the strongest symbols.

Inside, you’ll witness:

• Stories of a boy who learned to protect before he was old enough to rest.
• The discipline of becoming a father who stays.
• Rituals that turn pain into presence and silence into strength.
• The unspoken inheritance every parent decides to break — or continue.

This is a book about scars, symbols, and the power of showing up.

It is written for sons, for fathers, and for anyone standing in the doorway between what they inherited and what they choose to become.