The Afterword

Tag: health

  • The Most Human Thing I Do

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    Peter
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    What are your favourite physical activities or exercises? My favourite physical activity is simply walking. I know that sounds very vanilla, but that’s me. I’m not a rock climber. I’m not a gym person. I don’t crave the adrenaline of extreme sports. I just like walking. For more than fifty years I played competitive football.…

  • The Ritual of Being a Morning Person

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    Peter
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    Are you more of a night or morning person? I am definitely a morning person now. It wasn’t always that way. There was a time when I pushed myself late into the night, convinced that productivity came after midnight and that mornings were an inconvenience to be conquered. I would stay up long past what…

  • Honouring The Land That Feeds Us

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    Peter
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    What are your feelings about eating meat? I’ve eaten meat all my life.Not because I made a decision about it —simply because it was there,on the plate, part of the rhythm of childhood. Food was uncomplicated then.It appeared. I ate it.No ethical considerations. No questions.Just the comfort of routine and a full stomach. At some…

  • Nothing to Lose, Everything to Give

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    Peter
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    What would you do if you lost all your possessions? It’s a confronting question — one that sounds hypothetical, except it isn’t. For me, it came close to reality. I was caught in a scam. What I thought was a small, trustworthy investment turned into a complex trap. Over time, what had seemed solid dissolved…

  • The First Time I Learned Hard Work

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    Peter
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    In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled? I was fifteen the first time I met hard work face to face. Not chores, not the jobs around home that I already knew. This was something else—intensely hard work, the kind that strips you back, leaves you empty, and then fills you with a…

  • How Often Do I Walk or Run?

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    Peter
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    I don’t run these days. I’m a bit old for it, and if I were to run, I’d prefer to do it in a game with teammates—passing, chasing, laughing—not as a solitary exercise. But I walk every day, and rarely alone. In fact, as I write this, I’m heading out the door with the dog.…

  • How Do I Relax? A Soundtrack

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    Peter
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    If you asked me how I relax, I wouldn’t begin with a chair or a cup of tea. I’d begin with music. My relaxation comes with a soundtrack, one that slows the pulse, deepens the breath, and makes time feel longer than it really is. Silence has its place, but music often does what silence…

  • A Plan That Matches

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    Peter
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    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…

  • The Gift of Quiet Hours

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    Peter
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    I usually go to bed at 9.00pm. After a full day, I’m ready for it. There’s no fanfare—just a slow wind-down and sleep not far behind. And then I wake at 4.30am. No alarm, no urgency. Just the quiet sense that the day has begun. It feels like I’m the only one awake—until I start…

  • A Medical Mystery (with All Original Parts)

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    Peter
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    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…

  • 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…

  • The Orchard’s Got Taste

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    Peter
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    Speeches by Nominees for the 2025 Orchard’s Got Taste Awards 🎤 Papaya’s Speech — “The Gentle Healer” Steps up slowly, with a calm smile, arms wide. “Friends, I may not be the loudest fruit in the market,but I bring something no hype can offer—healing.Digestion? I’ve got enzymes.Immunity? I’m rich in Vitamin C and A.I soothe,…

  • The Slow Productivity of the Morning

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    Peter
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    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,…

  • Unwinding

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    Peter
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    I’m not sure I do this very well.Even the question—how do you unwind?—makes me pause. It doesn’t trigger a confident answer, but a kind of internal audit. I don’t have a ritual for it, not really. Not in the conventional sense. Unwinding, for me, is functional. It isn’t about indulgence; it’s about rhythm. I’ve learned…

  • When the Storm Came

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    Peter
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    When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Robert Menzies College (RMC) at Macquarie University, Sydney, found itself in a uniquely higher-risk setting. As a residential college, we faced a heightened potential for contagion. But rather than respond with fear or retreat, we chose to step forward—digging deep into our identity as a Caregiver institution. RMC has always…