Tag: mental-health
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My Complaint
What do you complain about the most? I complain about people who are caught up in themselves — people consumed by their own wants, always receiving, always wanting to know what’s in it for them. It feels self-indulgent, and it makes life harder than it needs to be. If I’m honest, I think I complain…
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Remembered Well
Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved? I’ve learned that being loved isn’t always a warm feeling. Sometimes it comes as a question. “Are you going to stay on?” When people ask that, they’re not only asking about a contract. They’re saying: we’ve grown used to you. We trust you. We’d…
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Closing Tabs
Where can you reduce clutter in your life? I sometimes think of about clutter as open tabs – the low-grade pressure running in the background, the feeling that life is always slightly unfinished. We’re in the declutter process at the moment. We’re currently living in a five-bedroom house, and in a couple of years we…
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House Rules for Online Communication
In what ways do you communicate online? Online communication, for me, isn’t a toolbox so much as a building: same address, different rooms, different dynamics, different outcomes. Email: This is the study. The good reading lamp. The filing cabinet. It is very adult. Everything said here can be printed, forwarded, rediscovered in 2029, and used…
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A Life Mission
What is your mission? I have dedicated my life to helping people grow. That has taken different forms in different seasons, but the thread has been remarkably consistent. I did it as a parish minister, walking alongside people as they grew in their knowledge and love of God. I did it as a husband, taking…
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This Season
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why? I probably spend more time thinking about the future than the past — and it’s less about personality than values. I’m drawn to long horizons. I often ask: What needs to happen now to build the best possible future in fifty years’…
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My Biggest Challenge
What are your biggest challenges? New Year’s Day 2026 It’s tempting to name my challenges as problems to solve, but that isn’t quite true. They are frequently awkward, demanding, sometimes painful—and yet they keep asking something of me that feels important. So rather than list what frustrates me, I’ll try to name what I’m learning…
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What Makes Me Feel Nostalgic
What makes you feel nostalgic? Some people live in the past, some live in the present, and some live in the future. I’ve never quite managed the first two. My imagination has always leaned forward, toward what might be, what could still be built, what decisions made today might open up possibilities fifty years from…
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I Don’t Fit the Box Anymore
How have your political views changed over time? When I was younger, my politics were simple. Not because I lacked conviction, but because I hadn’t yet needed to question it. My family leaned conservative, so I did too. It felt like the default setting. But growing up rearranged the furniture. Somewhere along the way I…
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1957
Share what you know about the year you were born. Dear 1957, You were already busy before I arrived. You were sketching sails on Sydney Harbour, trusting a bold, improbable vision from a Danish architect, long before anyone knew how hard it would be to build beauty at that scale. You were awarding Patrick White…
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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…
The Afterword 