The Afterword

Tag: love

  • The Crush That Wasn’t

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    Peter
    in

    I was 17 and had just unlocked the holy trinity of teenage freedom: a driver’s license, a half-reliable car, and parents who happily filled the tank. Enter: her. Sixteen. Bright. Cheerful. Needed a lift home from youth group. Or outings. Or basically anywhere that I could feasibly drive without stalling. I had a crush. A…

  • A Piece of the Past

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    Peter
    in

    I was running a memoir writing course for a group of older adults, including my mother and father. As part of a writing exercise, we laid out a range of objects on a table—simple items intended to spark memories. Each participant was invited to choose one and use it as a prompt for free writing.…

  • A Reflection on Passion, People, and Quiet Convictions

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    Peter
    in

    A lot of my passions begin quietly, relationally, with a gentle nudge toward something or someone worth noticing. Over the years, I’ve come to realise that I’m passionate about a handful of things—though they don’t always shout their name. They don’t always dress up as “passion” the way the world defines it. But they endure.…

  • The Company You Keep: How Your Inner Circle Shapes You

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    Peter
    in

    They say we become like the people we spend the most time with. If that’s true, then who we’re with is not just a reflection of who we are—it’s a blueprint of who we’re becoming. For me, that influence is both narrow and broad. First and most deeply, there’s my wife.She’s passionate—about wild places, community,…

  • You Make More of a Difference Than You Think

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    Peter
    in

    Every now and then, I try to take stock. Just an honest look in the mirror. What have I been given? What am I growing into? What can I offer? I’m not naturally comfortable answering the question, “What are you good at?” It feels like walking a narrow ridge between false humility and quiet pride.…

  • A Conversation About Contentment Across Generations

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    Peter
    in

    We were five generations at the table—passing the bread, refilling cups, and circling, as families do, around big questions in small talk. Someone had tossed it in lightly, like a crouton into a bowl of soup: “Do you think it’s possible to have it all?” As the conversation deepened, the focus shifted. Maybe the better…

  • A Life Worth Listening To

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    Peter
    in

    I’ve always been fascinated by people—what makes them tick, what they carry, and how their stories unfold. My first job after university was in IT, automating a production line. Because computers were expensive and labour was cheap, system development had to wait until after 4 p.m. So I started late and stayed late, spending my…

  • The Writing Compendium

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    Peter
    in

    I’m not someone who accumulates much. In fact, I’ve come to want less, not more. Rather than shape my life around possessions, I’d rather shape my life to need less. And yet, the belongings I do hold onto tend to carry meaning. They’re not just useful—they’re threads in a larger story. One that comes to…

  • The Day Mackenzie Scott Emailed Me

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    Peter
    in

    (Or, How I Almost Became a Billionaire in .ru) It was a regular Tuesday. I was sorting through my inbox like a digital archaeologist—sifting through newsletters I don’t remember subscribing to, birthday discounts from cafes I haven’t visited since 2017, and the occasional existential crisis triggered by seeing “Re: Just checking in” from someone I…

  • A Different Road

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    Peter
    in

    When I think about sacrifice, it rarely feels like I’ve given something up. I chose this path—this calling—and it has been full of meaning, challenge, and joy. But sacrifice has a way of surfacing not just in what we surrender personally, but in what those close to us carry because of our choices. If there’s…

  • The Ring I Never Take Off

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    Peter
    in

    The oldest thing I’m wearing today is my wedding ring. It’s been nearly 39 years since I first slipped it on—a simple gold band with a bevelled edge, unchanged by time, though life has changed around it many times over. New homes, different cities, changing routines. We’ve faced health scares, taken long-awaited holidays, chased goals…

  • You Saw Me

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    Peter
    in

    I was fifteen when I decided it was time—time to take my learning seriously. Not in the way school usually defined it, but in my own way. I had already learned that I didn’t thrive in traditional classrooms. I’m a visual learner. Spoken words dissolve into fog; lectures become a blur. I don’t absorb information…

  • Something to Do, Someone to Love, Something to Look Forward To

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    Peter
    in

    Purpose is the why behind what we do—our deeper motivation. Direction is the how—the path we take to express that purpose in action. Without purpose, our steps may be aimless. Without direction, even purposeful intent can wander. Together, they form a compass and a road. For me, direction in life flows from a conviction that…

  • Who will you be? How will you live?

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    Peter
    in

    What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a question I’ve heard all my life — first directed at me, then at the next generation. It usually expects a job title, something neat and impressive. But what if the better question is: Who will you be? How will you live? That question…

  • The Weight of Staying Silent

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    Peter
    in

    I’ve built much of my life on being reliable. Loyal. Dutiful. Self-sacrificing. These are strengths I’ve cultivated with care—virtues I’ve leaned on to be the kind of person others can count on. I take my responsibilities seriously. I honour commitments. I do what’s asked of me. And I like the respect that comes with that.…

  • On What Makes Me Nervous

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    Peter
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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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…