The Afterword

Category: Daily Prompt

  • The Quiet Work of Hearing

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    Peter
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    I wouldn’t claim to be an authority in the traditional sense — someone with all the answers or the loudest voice in the room. But I’ve spent a lifetime learning how to listen — to people, to texts, to what lies beneath the surface. My doctorate focused on preaching after Christendom: how to open the…

  • You Are Loved. You Are Loved. You Are Loved.

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    Peter
    in

    Not because you made the bedor remembered the milkor said all the right thingswith perfect timing. Not because you were brilliant todayor productiveor funnyor strong. But just—because you are here. Because when you walked inwith sleep in your eyesor silence in your mouthsomething in me softened. Because your laugheven the tired onerings familiarlike a song…

  • A Small Echo of What You Gave

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    Peter
    in

    Over the past year, I’ve found myself expressing gratitude in a new way — through writing. More specifically, through poems. Most Sundays, after church, I write a short reflective poem in response to the sermon. I started doing this quietly, almost experimentally, as a way of thinking more deeply about the message that I heard.…

  • Worried About the Future, Anchored in Hope

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    Peter
    in

    What am I most worried about for the future? At the moment, it’s the rise of autocratic leaders in various parts of the world. That’s what keeps pressing on my mind. The ease with which power consolidates around a single figure. The dismantling of institutions that were meant to outlast any one person. The echo…

  • Good vs. Great: The Difference a Teacher Makes

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    Peter
    in

    It’s a good question: What makes a teacher great? We’ve all known teachers who were good — even brilliant — at their subject. But that’s not the same as being great. At the school I attended, the smartest minds in the staff room were often the poorest teachers. They understood their material, but not their…

  • A Medical Mystery (with All Original Parts)

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    Peter
    in

    When people start talking surgeries, medications, or hospital stays, I tend to sit quietly and wonder if I missed a rite of passage. I’m in my late 60s, and the only time I’ve been near a hospital bed was 20 years ago for an outpatient procedure. No overnight stay. No gown. No jelly cup. I…

  • A Day in the Life (With Minor Interruptions)

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    Peter
    in

    My days start early. I get up around 4:30am—sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I never set an alarm. It’s just when I wake up. I wasn’t always a morning person—in my 20s I was the opposite—but the older I get, the earlier I rise. The first thing I do is feed the animals. Both the dog…

  • Tiny Daily Shifts: A Habitual Approach to Sustainability

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    Peter
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    People sometimes ask what it looks like to live more sustainably day-to-day, as though the answer might be sweeping or heroic. But most of the time, for me, it’s less about bold gestures and more about habits — small decisions, repeated daily, that shift the dial a little. Here are a few I try to…

  • “Mon Dieu, C’est Délicieux!” – The Summer Dish That Leaves the Room Silent

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    Peter
    in

    I’m the main cook in our house. Since I work from home most days, I’m usually the one who does the shopping too. When life gets busy, meals can get a bit repetitive — the same rotation of favourites, week after week. But every now and then, I get a burst of inspiration and try…

  • The Outfit I’d Be Willing to Be Known For

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    Peter
    in

    Or, The Guy in the Red Vest If I had to wear one outfit over and over again, I already know what it would be. Not because it’s the most flattering thing I’ve ever owned, or the most fashionable. But because I’ve already worn it, over and over. And I’ve already been known for it.…

  • Not What I Expected: On Spirituality, Surprise, and the Shape of Faith

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    Peter
    in

    Spirituality is very important in my life. That probably sounds predictable—I’m a minister, after all, and have spent my entire adult life in one form of ministry or another. You’d expect spirituality to be central to me. But the truth is, I didn’t grow up in a particularly spiritual household. Ours was a solid, reliable,…

  • A Royal Waste of Time: Why I Wish I Wasted More

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    Peter
    in

    This is an intriguing question: How do you waste the most time every day?Part of me wonders—do I waste enough? Marva Dawn wrote a book I’ve returned to often, titled A Royal Waste of Time. She suggests that much of our modern thinking—even in worship—gets caught up in outcomes and effectiveness. Did it connect? Did…

  • The Offal Truth: A Taste of Childhood

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    Peter
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    One day, when we’re finally through this obsession with novelty—when every meal doesn’t need a backstory and options—I’ll sit down with the next generation and  tell them what real courage looked like. It looked like sitting down to dinner on a Thursday night knowing it was going to be fish fingers, and doing it anyway.…

  • The Plinth

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    Peter
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    Scene 1: The Plinth (Tuesday) Every Saturday, the crowds came.They spilled from trains and buses, jerseys clinging to skin, faces painted in club colours. At the edge of the plaza, the bronze footballer stood frozen—one leg raised, mid-kick, triumph etched into the sinews of his cast-metal thigh. Children climbed the plinth. Tourists struck poses. On…

  • The Crush That Wasn’t

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    Peter
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    I was 17 and had just unlocked the holy trinity of teenage freedom: a driver’s license, a half-reliable car, and parents who happily filled the tank. Enter: her. Sixteen. Bright. Cheerful. Needed a lift home from youth group. Or outings. Or basically anywhere that I could feasibly drive without stalling. I had a crush. A…

  • What I Hold

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    Peter
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    Every so often, I find myselfreaching for the map again,not the one with borders and rail lines,but the one folded somewhere in my chest—creased with names I’ve never spoken aloud,warmed by places I haven’t stood inbut already miss. I hold England like an heirloom—my grandmother in Leeds,the streets she might have walkedwith a loaf under…

  • When People Are the Story

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    Peter
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    What’s your favourite thing about yourself?It’s an odd question, isn’t it? Odd, because I don’t tend to think in terms of favourites. And if I do reflect on what I value, it usually loops back to other people. So perhaps I’d say this: I’m glad that I still care deeply about people. Not in a…

  • Still Growing

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    Peter
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    In younger years, people were always starting things.We started jobs in borrowed suits,projects with foam boards and bright markers,planted basil in windowsills,thinking it would last forever. Now I am setting things down,not out of weariness,but as you might let go of a kite string—watching it rise,not fall. We have an old apartment near the sea.It’s…

  • Kindness, with a Key

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    Peter
    in

    For me, it would be my car — a 2006 Honda Accord.It’s coming up for its 20th birthday next year and has 250,000 km on the clock. I’m the third owner. I bought it from friends I know well — the kind of people who are fastidious with everything they own. I’d dropped in to…

  • A Piece of the Past

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    Peter
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    I was running a memoir writing course for a group of older adults, including my mother and father. As part of a writing exercise, we laid out a range of objects on a table—simple items intended to spark memories. Each participant was invited to choose one and use it as a prompt for free writing.…