The Afterword

Tag: love

  • On What Makes Me Nervous

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    It’s not fear that shaped me, not really, not in the way some people mean it. I was never afraid of change, not even as a kid, though I didn’t chase it either. I’ve stayed where things mattered. By the time I’m done, I’ll have worked in four places over forty years, and that sounds…

  • A Kind of Home

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Sometimes the people we need most are the ones we’ve never met before. There’s something oddly tender about the first conversation you have with a stranger—especially when it happens in a room full of strangers, where no one yet knows how the story will go. That first confession, “I’ve never done this before,” offered by…

  • Still, I Stay

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    —from the voice of a Syrian in exile I have never stopped dreaming of the olive trees.Even now,in this camp of sand and plastic walls,I see them when I close my eyes—the way their shadows fell across my grandfather’s fieldbefore everything cracked and scattered. Home is a scent that never fades.It lives in cardamom coffee,in…

  • Legacy

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    It started with a quiet hello,a question, May I walk you home?From that step forward,you walked together—steady, respectful, kind. You built a life without fanfare,through distance and duty,through saving, working, studying late,through raising a familyon love, not luxury. Your home was never just walls—it was presence.A place where needs were met,where laughter grew around the…

  • The Happiness I Didn’t Buy

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Let me start with what I am not. I am not a consumer, at least not in the way the world often defines it. I buy what I need—groceries, dog food, replacement socks. But I’ve never found myself wandering through a shopping centre just to “see what’s new.” I don’t crave the latest model of…

  • Shadow, Stillness, Shine

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    We’ve always had female border collies. Maybe it started with Footrot Flats—those funny cartoons full of loyal friends with more personality than most people. Maybe it was happenstance. Either way, dogs have walked beside us throughout our married life, and they’ve each left their pawprints on us in different ways. Jessie was our first. Fresh…

  • Heartbeat

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    There is something precious about the season of life that university represents. These years are often full of energy and possibility, and Robert Menzies College (RMC) gives space for students to embrace that—to enjoy the strength in their bodies, the openness of their futures, and the gift of being with others who are also finding…

  • Poem for a Friend

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    You stand in a culture that sells mirrorsand handcuffs them to worth.Scales. Dress sizes.The photo where your arms looked better—these are its gods. But you are not here to worship.You are here to rearrange the furniture. You’ve always loved the misfits.Not just the ones who bloom late,but the ones who don’t knowthey were planted at…

  • Through Seventy Years

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Based on the Life Stories of Trevor & Patricia DavisWritten for their 70th Wedding Anniversary, 1 January 2025 It started with a barn dance,two strangers moving to the same rhythm.A quiet smile, a tentative question,May I walk you home?Patricia took a chance and said yes,and from that moment,two paths became one. Clarence Street saw your…