The Afterword

Tag: blogging

  • Two Kinds of Leisure

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    Peter
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    What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time? I’ve realised I don’t really have one kind of leisure. I have two—quiet rest and active rest—and I seem to need both. Quiet rest is where my mind gets room to breathe. That’s mostly writing. Not writing to impress anyone, or to prove something, or…

  • My Biggest Challenge

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    Peter
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    What are your biggest challenges? New Year’s Day 2026 It’s tempting to name my challenges as problems to solve, but that isn’t quite true. They are frequently awkward, demanding, sometimes painful—and yet they keep asking something of me that feels important. So rather than list what frustrates me, I’ll try to name what I’m learning…

  • Independence as Headspace

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    Peter
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    What technology would you be better off without, why? When we talk about technology we could live without, many people think of screens or apps. But the technology I would be better off without is much more familiar. A car. I didn’t always think this way. Like most people, I inherited the assumption that a…

  • The Desert I Still Might Cross

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    Peter
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    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…

  • For Those Who Want to Go Deeper

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    Peter
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    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…

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

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    Peter
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    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…

  • 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…

  • Making It Happen—Without Making a Fuss

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    Peter
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    I was once given a “Make It Happen Award” at work. It surprised me. I’ve never been the “charge ahead and take the hill” type. I’m not the loudest voice in the room. I don’t pound the table or dominate the agenda. But making things happen can look different. Sometimes it’s a quiet conversation that…

  • Let’s Talk About Tension

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    Peter
    in

    When I hear the phrase “work-life balance,” I get uneasy. It conjures images of perfect equilibrium—neatly arranged schedules, harmonious transitions, nothing out of place. But that has never felt real to me. My experience is far closer to a game of Whac-A-Mole: get one thing under control and another pops up. Harmony, if it comes…