The Afterword

Category: Daily Prompt

  • What We Were Told to Carry

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    Peter
    in

    What’s the most important thing to carry with you all the time? Most of us reach for the obvious: keys, wallet, phone. A water bottle. Maybe snacks. Maybe a backup plan. But in Matthew 10, when Jesus sends His disciples out into the world, He strips away the checklist. He tells them not to carry…

  • For Those Who Want to Go Deeper

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    Peter
    in

    This blog began as a personal discipline. I found myself sitting in church, receiving a sermon like a consumer—“Nice sermon, Reverend”—and moving on. But something in me wanted more engagement. What if, instead of moving on, I stayed with the message? Sat with it. Let it shape something in me, or be reflected back through…

  • The Voice Beneath the Dust

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    Peter
    in

    From a lone tree, somewhere forgotten They think I am the last.The last sentinel in a land that once danced with green.They see my twisted trunk, my cracked limbs, and call this place barren.But they do not know the names I remember.They do not hear what hums beneath. Beneath your bulldozers and your borrowed time,a…

  • A Meal She Still Talks About

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    Peter
    in

    I don’t remember the exact amount I paid. That’s probably for the best. What I do remember is that it was a lot—and it was for a dinner at Bilson’s, one of Sydney’s most respected fine-dining restaurants at the time. It was my wife’s birthday—a big one—and I wanted to mark the occasion with something…

  • Free as a Brat

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    Peter
    in

    For many, the announcement of a “Word of the Year” might feel trivial, especially when the chosen word is “brat.” It’s not about war, policy, climate crisis, or scientific breakthroughs. It’s a cultural blip—mildly amusing at best, eye-roll-inducing at worst. The redefinition of “brat”—from spoiled child to a blend of chaotic confidence, hedonism, and emotional…

  • Top 30: Joy Edition

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    Peter
    in

    A Playlist of Things That Make Me Happy Mood: Grounded wonder • Quiet hope • Relational beauty Places That Stir the Soul People and Community Moments of Growth and Formation Nature and Beauty That Nourish Creative Joy and Surprise Simple Sensory Anchors

  • Quiet Joy

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    Peter
    in

    There’s a quiet joy that comes from doing the same things, again and again, with purpose. Each day closes with Scripture. After the meetings, the meals, the movement of the day, I return to stillness. The light softens, the world quiets, and I open the text—not out of obligation, but to let the final word…

  • Curiosity as a Way of Life

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    Peter
    in

    with gratitude to Tony Rinaudo and the forests beneath our feethttps://youtu.be/29bqRTW2aow I’m curious about how things hold together—ecosystems, communities, memories.What’s quietly mending beneath the surfacewhile we’re distracted by outcomes. I’m curious about the healing power of nature,about how a scorched landscapecan remember itself greenwhen we stop trying to make it ‘productive’. Tony Rinaudo writes of…

  • Just Passing It On

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    Peter
    in

    It wasn’t really my kindness, not in the way people usually mean it. Two years ago, a student from China arrived at our college.Shy, polite, still finding his feet — and his English.One Monday morning he came to see me, agitated and afraid.The story took time to piece together:he’d been caught in an online scam,forced…

  • If You Can’t See Me

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    Peter
    in

    Picture a man at the edge of a crowd. Not trying to stand out, not trying to blend in. He’s the one scanning the space, not nervously, not passively, but like someone looking for a familiar voice. That could be you. You’re the one he’s waiting for. He’s a touch over six feet tall—tall enough…

  • Not Just Morality

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    Peter
    in

    We went to Sunday School when I was a kid. Most weeks. But we never went to church. Not even at Christmas or Easter. At the time, I didn’t think it was odd. A lot of Australian families I knew did the same. I think my parents thought Sunday School gave us something. A kind…

  • Name by Name

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    Peter
    in

    Was today typical?Not in the slightest. It began with the quiet courage of 78 new studentsstepping into their first lectures—most in a new country,many in a new language.Timetables, tutorials,and the brave business of beginning. I began the New Resident Interviews—they’ll continue over the next two weeks.Most are in small groups—two or three at a time—but…

  • Pull Up A Chair

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    Peter
    in

    I try to live in a way that reflects what I value. I’ve worn a few hats—pastor, lecturer, college principal—but the thread running through them all is people. Listening to them, learning from them, helping them grow. I’m most at home when I’m building something that lasts: trust, community, clarity, hope. I value listening more…

  • Not Quite a Dinosaur, But Close Enough

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    Peter
    in

    I’ve never really been into dinosaurs. Most of what I do know about them comes from The Flintstones. As a kid, I didn’t pore over Jurassic encyclopedias—I watched Fred slide off the back of a brontosaurus-excavator when it was quitting time, his time-card snapped by a tiny dino. And I thought, “Yep, that checks out.”…

  • More Than a Destination

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    Peter
    in

    If I won two free plane tickets, I wouldn’t choose based on the usual criteria—weather, reviews, or what’s trending on travel blogs. I’d choose based on what I want to invest in. Wonder? Then I’d fly to Iqaluit and join an expedition to Baffin Island. There’s something about wild places—the stark beauty, the silence, the…

  • A Name Given by the Tribe

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    Peter
    in

    You don’t name yourself, not really.That’s not how nicknames work. They arrive unexpectedly, quietly—like a stray dog that decides to follow you home.You might not even notice it at first.But the people around you do.They see something, say something, and suddenly, there it is: a new name.And if it sticks, it sticks. For me, it…

  • Letter to Myself

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    Peter
    in

    Dear Me at 70, I hope you’re still waking early,not out of duty, but because the morning offers something no other part of the day can—a soft kind of hushthat makes room for reflectionand lets you move gently into whatever comes next. I hope you still begin with the animals—their quiet reliance a steadying thing,a…

  • What are your future travel plans?

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    Peter
    in

    We don’t have any specific travel plans at the moment—there are other priorities as I head toward retirement. Chief among them is refurbishing an apartment that we hope will be a good fit for the next chapter of life. As I’ve written elsewhere, I don’t keep a bucket list. https://theafterword.blog/2025/04/13/bucket-lists-and-buffett-lists/ I’m not driven by a…

  • What Would I Change About Modern Society?

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Not everything that matters can be measured. Not generosity.Not endurance.Not the quiet resilience of a young man who studies through grief,or the kindness of a woman who smiles even when she misses her mother’s funeral. In my eight years as principal of a university college, I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside students who arrived…

  • Conversations with a Restless Library

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    Peter
    in

    I don’t curate.I don’t pre-select.I don’t build productivity playlists. I just hit shuffle on my entire music library and wait to see what sort of mood it’s in. Some days, it’s a model colleague — thoughtful, supportive, gently nudging me into creative flow.Other days, it behaves like a caffeinated record-store assistant with a point to…