The Afterword

Tag: dailyprompt

  • How Am I Feeling Right Now? A Four-Way Conversation

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Mind: You’re fine. Okay. Manageable. But let’s be honest—today’s loaded. An 8.00am meeting, then visiting Mum after her fall and surgery. Lunch with our colleague celebrating citizenship—good, but another thing on the list. And don’t forget the student conversation after that complaint. Important, yes, but draining. Heart: Important, yes—but don’t turn everything into a task…

  • Tiny Hinges, Big Doors

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    by

    Peter
    in

    It’s the smallest things that open the biggest spaces in life. For me, it starts early. I wake while the house is quiet and write for an hour. The words don’t always come easily, but even the attempt fills me with energy and joy. It’s like oiling the hinges on my day — everything swings…

  • The Difference Between Grace and Guilt

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    by

    Peter
    in

    The last thing I searched for was an article called “The Broken Grace of Leonard Cohen.” I was thinking about Cohen’s views about God after a funny mix-up in conversation. Someone said that “Into My Arms”—the song about an “Interventionist God”—was Leonard Cohen’s. It isn’t. It belongs to Nick Cave. And while it mentions God,…

  • Looking Back at the Shows of My Childhood

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    by

    Peter
    in

    When I was a kid, I thought TV was just fun. Looking back now, I see it was also shaping how I laughed, imagined, and even how I thought about the world. If I sat my childhood self and my adult self together on the couch, here’s how the conversation might go. Get Smart Wacky…

  • My Favourite Time of Day

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    by

    Peter
    in

    My favourite time of day is now.I write these words at five in the morning. The animals are fed and settled,I am fed and settled.The inbox is cleared of clutter—the important messages waitingfor a later hour. Now the house is hushed.The world is still.And I write. This is playtime—my sandpit of words and ideas,where language…

  • Strawberry & Rhubarb Crumble

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    by

    Peter
    in

    I found the recipe years ago in a weekend newspaper, folded between the gardening pages and the travel lift-out. I didn’t know then that it would become part of the fabric of our life together. I clipped it, tucked it away, and soon it was bubbling in my own oven. The recipe is simple: 500g…

  • It Only Takes a Spark

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Excitement often comes like a spark—unexpected, bright, and full of energy. Recently, three sparks have lit up my life. A rediscovered spark. After nearly thirty years immersed in academia, I’ve returned to creative writing. It feels like a long-lost part of me has come home. This week I got news that one of my stories…

  • The City of the Future

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    by

    Peter
    in

    When you step out the door in this city, you don’t face traffic. You face a courtyard. Each cluster of apartments, terraces, or townhouses opens inward, toward a green square where people naturally meet. Streets and cars exist, but they’re pushed to the edges. The courtyard is the neighbourhood’s beating heart. During the day, children…

  • Once Common, Now Rare

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    by

    Peter
    in

    When I was a kid, Peter was everywhere. It was a widespread boys’ name — unremarkable, ordinary, as common as peanut butter sandwiches in a school lunchbox. In the classroom roll call there were always a few of us, and at sport you could shout “Peter!” and three heads would turn. My parents didn’t choose…

  • Telos

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    by

    Peter
    in

    I’ve often thought that what motivates us is not simply about the present moment but about where it all leads. The Greek philosophers had a word for this: telos. It means the goal, the end, the purpose toward which something is moving. Money has never been my telos. It provides comfort and security, but by…

  • Ten Films That Stay With Me

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    Peter
    in

    When asked to name my top ten favourite films, I find I’m less interested in technical brilliance than in the way a story lingers. These are the films that I return to in thought long after the credits roll. Some make me laugh, others leave me quiet with grief, and a few manage to hold…

  • The Mirror and The Window

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    by

    Peter
    in

    What I enjoy most about writing is that it lets me reflect on life—this wondrous, complex, ambiguous gift we’ve been given. To write is to pause long enough to notice, to respect the joy and mystery of it all. Writing is a mirror. It reflects what I hear, see, and feel. Every week I take…

  • One Square Kilometre

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    Peter
    in

    If I draw a one kilometre square around my home, it is full to the brim. There are the university grounds, broad and green, with a lake where ducks paddle and students sprawl on the grass. The dog loves it there — it’s our favourite loop. There is a nearby forest where neighbours play badminton,…

  • Joy arrives early

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    by

    Peter
    in

    She never knocks—just slips quietly into the studywhile the kettle hums in the kitchen.She catches me with pen in hand,unfolding thoughts into poetry,threading stories until they can carry someone’squestions without breaking. By the time we step outside,she has borrowed the leash from its hookand is leading me down the street,the dog’s paws whispering on wet…

  • The Compass, Not the Map

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    by

    Peter
    in

    I’ve never lived with a step-by-step plan designed to land that job or that promotion.No laminated roadmap taped to the wall, no red X marking the destination. Instead, I’ve tried to navigate by two compass points: curiosity and character.Curiosity keeps me exploring,asking “What if?” and “Why not?” when others are certain the path is fixed.Character…

  • A Plan That Matches

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    Peter
    in

    Most emergency preparedness plans start with a checklist: torches, bottled water, spare batteries. It involves providing essentials and eliminating risk. Mine starts with two people.My mother, 91. My father, 95. Still living in the house they bought sixty years ago. They are determined to keep four things at this stage of life: Moving into higher…

  • When Everything Is Awesome

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    Peter
    in

    I know awesome has been overused for years.It’s become a conversational crutch—a word we toss in to underline a point,when really, the point should stand on its own.It has drifted far from its meaning,like a balloon carried away from the party,losing air as it goes. I’ve known awesome.I’ve stood in the pure majesty of Antarctica,floated…

  • Peace in Motion

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    Peter
    in

    Peace doesn’t always arrive in stillness.Sometimes it’s found in steady footsteps,on a trail that winds through gum and wattle,hours into a bushwalk when the body is movingbut the mind is clear and alert. That’s when ideas come in a rush.By the time I get home,I often have to journal,spilling out the thoughts that arrivedbetween bird…

  • Those Who See Beauty Still

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    Peter
    in

    The profession I admire most is not one that seeks the spotlight, but one that leans quietly toward what is broken and begins the slow, patient work of making it whole. I think of bush regenerators — the ones who spend hours under the sun, removing weeds, planting natives, and trusting that the land can…

  • The Listening Post

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    by

    Peter
    in

    If I ever opened a shop, there would be no cash register.No stockroom.No “Sale!” signs. Just a wooden table, a pot of tea, and a small sign on the door:We trade in stories, not goods. Here’s how it works.When you come in, you take a seat with a stranger.One of you tells a story—any story.Where…