Category: Daily Prompt
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Living by Calling, Not Clock
Do you need time? Time flies. Everyone says that, and it’s true. Days blur into weeks, and sometimes I wonder where it all went. There are moments I catch myself whispering, I just need more time. But then I remember two lines that have followed me for years. Tolkien once wrote, “All we have to…
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A Conversation with Time
What will your life be like in three years? Peter: So, Time, they say the next three years could bring the biggest changes of my life. Time: They often do, if you’re paying attention. Peter: My current role finishes in two years. After that, retirement. A new rhythm. Maybe even a quieter purpose. Time: Retirement…
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Rewilding Day
Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate. During the long months of COVID, the world changed — not only in our routines but in the rhythm of creation itself. Cities grew quiet, skies cleared, and animals reclaimed spaces we’d long assumed were ours. Kangaroos bounded down Adelaide’s main streets. Birds returned to…
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My Sandpit
What are your favourite websites? Every morning begins the same way. I open WordPress, not for work and not out of duty, but because it’s my sandpit — the place I play with words. For 215 mornings straight I’ve written something there, sometimes serious, sometimes small. Writing steadies me. Some people think by talking. Some…
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The Year of Beginnings
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live? If I could relive a year, it would be 1986 — the year we were married. It was a season of joy and discovery, of learning how to build a life together from the ground up. We were settling into a new town,…
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When Grief Became Reform
The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 was one of the darkest days in Australia’s history. In a place once known for convict suffering and quiet Tasmanian beauty, violence erupted with shocking speed. Thirty-five people were killed, twenty-three wounded. For days the nation could only grieve — stunned, disbelieving, hollowed out. What might have happened if…
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What Everyone Should Know
What’s something you believe everyone should know? Everyone should know that relationships matter. More than success, more than possessions, more than the restless drive to be admired. When I visit my mother in the nursing home, her world has narrowed to a single room. She doesn’t know what day it is, or sometimes where she…
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Light and Shadow
When you’re a child, everything feels big. The days stretch long, the friendships feel forever, and even the smallest moment can fill the whole sky. Childhood is made of contrasts — light and shadow living side by side. I remember the joy first. Endless days with Robert, three doors up the street. We played until…
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Three Wishes
You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for? The genie blinked, rubbing his eyes as if he’d just woken from centuries of sleep.“Three wishes,” he said, stretching his arms. “Anything you want.” I looked at him — this weary servant of human desire — and said, “I don’t want anything for myself.”He…
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The Heirloom
Describe a family member My mother is ninety-one. Her memory drifts now, and her balance is unsteady. She no longer knows what day it is, or where she is. She knows that my father sleeps at home, but she can no longer remember where that home is. She lives in a nursing home now, where…
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The Man Who Walks Things to the Bin
What is your favourite form of physical exercise? I walk.I walk the dog every morning, a loyal companion beside me as the neighbourhood wakes.I walk to the shops and back, when others would drive.I walk ideas into shape — a podcast in my ears, a thought in my head, and before long, the start of…
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Grounded
How much would you pay to go to the moon? I suppose there are a number of attractions to going to the moon. It would be exotic — the trip of a lifetime. Awe inspiring. Perspective shifting. People say that astronauts who have travelled there are never quite the same again. But beyond that, it…
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The Common Thread
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in? They say most people will work four or five different careers in their lifetime. That’s certainly been true for me — though looking back, I’m not sure I’ve ever really changed careers. The work has always been the same: helping things grow. I began…
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The Shared Table
What food would you say is your specialty? I don’t really think of myself as having a specialty. There are meals I enjoy cooking for myself, but they rarely excite anyone else — small experiments, quiet comforts for a crowd of one. When I cook for others, though, the table changes. That’s where my specialties…
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History in Black and White
What major historical events do you remember? The first world event I remember is the death of President Kennedy. I was a kid in infants school. The news came through our black-and-white television — one my father built himself, his engineer’s pride sitting square in the corner of the lounge room. We were among the…
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The Desert I Still Might Cross
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? If I were a younger man, I might try to cross a desert. But I’m not, so I’ll settle for something more realistic — the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia. It runs 223 kilometres from Alice Springs to Mount Sonder, one…
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Sowing into Others
What are you most proud of in your life? The world keeps rushing,always reaching for something more,but the people I’ve walked besideare doing steady, faithful things. They are learning,listening,finding their own way forward. I’ve seen them grow through doubt and grace,through ordinary days that mattered more than they knew. And I don’t need to measure…
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When the World Is Asleep
What have you been working on? Sometimes the work begins when the world is asleep. Last night the phone rang well after midnight — a mother, frightened and far away, worried for her son who hadn’t been in touch since early evening. Her son is an international student staying in our residential college. She couldn’t…
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Rest and Productivity
Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive? Productivity:You again? I thought we agreed you’d keep to Sundays.I’ve got things to do — lists that don’t tick themselves. Rest:I know. You always do.But your shoulders are up near your ears again,and that list is starting to look like a barrier,not a bridge. Productivity:Someone has…
The Afterword 