Tag: mental-health
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What Arrived This Year
Is your life today what you pictured a year ago? Is my life today what I pictured a year ago? The answer is yes and no. I lived on the beaches for thirty years, so my worldview is shaped by surf culture. One of the first things you learn is that you don’t control the…
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The Most Human Thing I Do
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.…
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Doing Less of “More”
What could you do less of? My mother has always said that I do too much. She may be right. If the blog prompt asks what I could do less of, the honest answer is this: I could do less of “more.” There’s something in me—an impulse, a reflex—that thinks I can always add one…
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The Hidden Wins of 2025
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year? It’s been a tough year in places. My parents are going downhill fast, and my mother is now permanently in a nursing home. It’s stressful for them and stressful for us, yet I’m grateful that the whole family has shown up in…
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Five Things I’m Good At
Share five things you’re good at. Some people’s strengths are loud. Mine have always been quieter—subtle things that don’t announce themselves, but settle into the background of a room, or a team, or a community. They’re not the kind of skills that appear on a résumé, but they’re the ones that shape the way I…
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The Quiet Thread I Would Change
What is one thing you would change about yourself? Someone once told me that when I get up to preach, it’s like watching someone flick a switch. One moment I’m my usual quiet self, and the next I’m fully present—clear, confident, grounded. Here’s the funny thing: that version of me on the platform is the…
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The Ritual of Being a Morning Person
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…
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Independence as Headspace
What technology would you be better off without, why? When we talk about technology we could live without, many people think of screens or apps. But the technology I would be better off without is much more familiar. A car. I didn’t always think this way. Like most people, I inherited the assumption that a…
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Pet Peeves That Reveal What I Value
Name your top three pet peeves. I don’t get particularly irritated by these things, but I notice them—mainly because they hint at something larger. They remind us of how our shared life works, and how easily it frays when we forget that we live together, not alone. 1. Abandoned Shopping TrolleysI understand why people wheel…
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A Sliding Doors Reflection
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? To be honest, I’m happy where I am.Sydney has been home for most of my life—its light, its seasons, its familiar rhythms.But every now and then, the imagination wanders.I find myself thinking in parallel lines, picturing the other lives that might have unfolded…
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The Heirloom
Describe a family member My mother is ninety-one. Her memory drifts now, and her balance is unsteady. She no longer knows what day it is, or where she is. She knows that my father sleeps at home, but she can no longer remember where that home is. She lives in a nursing home now, where…
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The Common Thread
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in? They say most people will work four or five different careers in their lifetime. That’s certainly been true for me — though looking back, I’m not sure I’ve ever really changed careers. The work has always been the same: helping things grow. I began…
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The Desert I Still Might Cross
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? If I were a younger man, I might try to cross a desert. But I’m not, so I’ll settle for something more realistic — the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia. It runs 223 kilometres from Alice Springs to Mount Sonder, one…
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What I’ve Been Putting Off
What have you been putting off doing? Why? Here’s a list of things I’ve been putting off: At first glance, it’s just a list of chores. But they form a quiet constellation — pieces of life I’ve postponed because they each deserve more than a rushed hour squeezed between meetings and errands. The boxes hold…
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The Ripple Effect
If I had a million dollars to give away, I know exactly where it would go.It would go to people who believe — as I do — that education changes everything. I’ve spent my whole adult life helping people grow. It’s the thread that runs through everything that has mattered to me: seeing people develop…
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The Hardest Goal I Ever Set
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself? It began with an idea.A flicker really — a connection I started to notice between my interest in creative writing and my practice as a preacher. Both, I realised, were about shaping meaning, holding attention, and opening space for discovery. I thought a doctorate might…
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Nothing to Lose, Everything to Give
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…
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A Day in the Diary
Your life without a computer: what does it look like? 7.00am. The desk feels emptier without a screen in front of me. Essays take forever. My pen scratches against the page, and when I need a reference, I head to the library, combing through indexes and card catalogues. Progress is measured in hours, not minutes.…
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The First Time I Learned Hard Work
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…
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Risk and Waiting
What’s the trait you value most about yourself? What I value most about myself is not a single trait but a paradox I live with. I am both daring and patient. I will risk everything when the cause is right, and yet I will wait years if the time is not ready. It’s a strange…
The Afterword 