The Afterword

Tag: life

  • Many Strands of Heritage

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    Peter
    in

    What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in? When I think about my cultural heritage as an Australian, I don’t immediately go to music, food, or fashion. I go to politics—not the bickering kind, but those rare, defining decisions that have shaped the fabric of our nation. There are…

  • How Often Do I Walk or Run?

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    Peter
    in

    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.…

  • Lighthouse Keeper

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    Peter
    in

    Do I see myself as a leader? Yes, though I would describe my leadership differently from the way many might picture it. I have led churches and not-for-profits for the best part of forty years, but I am not the loudest voice in the room nor am I constantly chasing the next opportunity. My style…

  • Play and Encounter

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    Peter
    in

    I tried to answer the question, “What’s your favourite word?” but I couldn’t do it. One word isn’t enough. My world is held together by tensions. Not contradictions to be solved, but creative tensions to be lived. The energy is in the middle, in the space where both are true at once. So it makes…

  •  The Vague Jar

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    Peter
    in

    I’ve decided I need a jar. Not for swear words, but for generalisations. Every time I say “that sort of thing” or “et cetera,” I’ll have to drop a coin in. It turns out I use those phrases more than I’d like to admit. They’re my linguistic shortcut, a way of sweeping a whole armful…

  • Terra Incognita

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    Peter
    in

    The furthest I ever traveled from home was everywhere.A round-the-world ticket—you can’t really get further away than that.I left with research in my bag and Duke Universityas my compass point. Duke was extraordinary.Magnificent buildings, gothic archesdesigned to look older than they were.Exceptional students and world-class teacherswalking polished halls that had been paid forby Methodist tobacco…

  • The Mirror and The Window

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    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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Top 30: Joy Edition

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    Peter
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    A Playlist of Things That Make Me Happy Mood: Grounded wonder • Quiet hope • Relational beauty Places That Stir the Soul People and Community Moments of Growth and Formation Nature and Beauty That Nourish Creative Joy and Surprise Simple Sensory Anchors

  • Quiet Joy

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    Peter
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    There’s a quiet joy that comes from doing the same things, again and again, with purpose. Each day closes with Scripture. After the meetings, the meals, the movement of the day, I return to stillness. The light softens, the world quiets, and I open the text—not out of obligation, but to let the final word…

  • Just Passing It On

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    Peter
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    It wasn’t really my kindness, not in the way people usually mean it. Two years ago, a student from China arrived at our college.Shy, polite, still finding his feet — and his English.One Monday morning he came to see me, agitated and afraid.The story took time to piece together:he’d been caught in an online scam,forced…

  • Letter to Myself

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    Peter
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    Dear Me at 70, I hope you’re still waking early,not out of duty, but because the morning offers something no other part of the day can—a soft kind of hushthat makes room for reflectionand lets you move gently into whatever comes next. I hope you still begin with the animals—their quiet reliance a steadying thing,a…

  • What Would I Change About Modern Society?

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    Peter
    in

    Not everything that matters can be measured. Not generosity.Not endurance.Not the quiet resilience of a young man who studies through grief,or the kindness of a woman who smiles even when she misses her mother’s funeral. In my eight years as principal of a university college, I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside students who arrived…

  • Conversations with a Restless Library

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    Peter
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    I don’t curate.I don’t pre-select.I don’t build productivity playlists. I just hit shuffle on my entire music library and wait to see what sort of mood it’s in. Some days, it’s a model colleague — thoughtful, supportive, gently nudging me into creative flow.Other days, it behaves like a caffeinated record-store assistant with a point to…

  • Dogs or Cats?

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    Peter
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    People ask it like it’s a personality test. As though the answer reveals whether you are loyal or aloof,needy or independent,playful or discerning.But maybe it’s not that black and white.Maybe it’s not even about pets. Maybe it’s about how we love. Do we want someone who runs to greet usevery time we walk through the…

  • Losing Track of Time—By Moving Through It

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    Peter
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    I’ve never been someone who loses track of time in stillness.Some people sit by the ocean and watch waves roll in like slow breath.They stare at the sky and say they’re thinking about nothing.I respect that. I admire it, even. But it is not me. Stillness makes me restless. I lose track of time when…

  • What gets better with age?

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    Peter
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    Life. We had a big school reunion last year. I wasn’t sure what to expect—decades had passed—but it turned out to be surprisingly good. Familiar faces, stories retold, gaps filled in. A few of us met up again before Christmas. No agenda, just time to talk. One friend shared how he’d spent years teaching chess…

  • 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…

  • Morning Pages, Morning Peace

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    Peter
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    For me, writing is one of the most reliable sources of comfort. I don’t journal in the traditional sense—there’s no “dear diary” and no record of what I did the day before. Instead, I write about something that has caught my attention, or I respond to a prompt like this one. Some mornings, my mind…