The Afterword

Tag: health

  • 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…