The Afterword

Category: Podcasts

  • Loss, Yearning, Transcendence

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    by

    Peter
    in ,

    “Religion is spirituality with rigour,” Nick Cave says, half-laughing, half-serious. But beneath the quip lies a depth of insight that names something essential: that the spiritual life is not only about yearning, but about consenting to be shaped by the weight of that yearning. In a world often suspicious of structure and reverence, religion can…

  • The Slow Productivity of the Morning

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    by

    Peter
    in ,

    There is a kind of productivity that moves fast —urgent, noisy, tangled in a web of demands.And then there is another kind:the slow, deep work of becoming.I find it most clearly in the morning. The house is still.The animals are fed.The world has not yet begun to press its needs against me.In those early hours,…

  • Two Deaths, One Cross

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    by

    Peter
    in ,

    There are two ways to tell the story—two levels on which death can be thought. One is sweat and struggle,politics and betrayal,the kind of death you can reconstructwith names and timelines,a corrupt priesthood guarding its place,a Roman governor playing at peacewhile fearing a riot.Crowds sway like reeds in a storm.This is the deaththat history books…

  • Feels Like Belonging

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    by

    Peter
    in ,

    The parking lot was packedand I don’t even know whybut I just pulled inon a Wednesday night in Lent.The room is quiet.A few candles,three readings from Isaiah,the faint scent of old wood and ash. A woman two rows ahead is crying—not loudly,just the kind of cryingthat keeps goingbecause no one stops it. The minister says,you…

  • Bucket Lists and Buffett Lists

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    by

    Peter
    in ,

    There’s something intoxicating about a bucket list. The name itself is cheeky and rebellious—do these things before you kick the bucket. It suggests urgency, vibrancy, life-before-death. Bucket lists seduce us with a sense of possibility: Swim in Icelandic hot springs. Walk the Great Wall. Eat something unpronounceable in a night market at midnight. The irony,…

  • The Long Work of Peace

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Peaceis not the absence of heat,but the refusal to set fire. It isthe trembling artof standing stillin the middle of serious, serious disagreementwithout reaching for the sword. I have shouted in love before—I have listened in silence and not loved at all.But peace asks more:not just to feel right,but to live rightwhen the table is…

  • Blessed are the Mirrors

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Art holds my sadness,presses it gently into color and form,whispering—this, too, belongs. I trace the lines, carve the shape,and somewhere between the ink and the ache,God meets me. I have been searchingfor a place to set my grief down,for hands that do not rush to fixbut simply say—stay as long as you need. My mother’s…