“This is my one wild and beautiful life... How am I going to spend it?”
of learning as a Christian, a wife, a mother, a daughter and a broadcaster.
“I’ve lived for 50 years and met lots of people, as well as people who know people. So when I reach out to someone, if they can’t come on the show, they know someone who can.”
Petra is giving herself a chance to grow into the show and give it a chance to evolve into what it can be, but she’s already been amazed at the response to it. One listener emailed to tell her that many people crave sacred space and spiritual sanctuary but feel really turned off by organised religion.
The listener said, “It’s so awesome to hear a radio programme that feels both profound and deep, while also being accessible and welcoming. We need more of this, a kind of universal sacredness, in homes, in schools, in offices.”
Petra smiles, “When I read that email, I thought, ‘She got it. This is the show!’ It was so exciting to see that happening. It’s about increasing our sense of peace, increasing our sense of faith. But we all do that in community and relationships, so if an audio community like Sunday Sanctuary could end up being a touch point for someone or a moment of respite, then I’m happy.”
Petra is also busy working on her podcast Grey Areas, which has become a huge hit. She enthuses, “We got to number one on the podcast charts and stayed there for our first season, and then we won an award for best new podcast, so it’s been such a thrill.”
She feels part of the success of Grey Areas is that she is talking to herself. “I know who I’m talking to and I’m talking to me – a New Zealander in a season of change/transition. I’m talking in a way that is, I hope, no frills but good quality.”
Petra is working on the third season now and says it’s about getting really comfy in your own skin in your late forties, fifties, sixties and beyond.
She adds, “It’s worth investing our own time and energy into these years and being drivers of that. Being powerful in our second puberty, a second spring, wisdom years… whatever label you want to give it.
But these post-childbearing years are not the antechamber to death.
It’s about saying, ‘This is my one wild and beautiful life. How am I going to spend it now that my energy can be redirected?’”
Petra believes there is more to life than “paying off the mortgage, climbing the corporate ladder, or surviving until the next nice holiday, drink, meal or piece of chocolate”.
She is also part of the trend to intergenerational living. For some time, she’s had her parents Daniel and Judi living with her at the family home in a separate residence, so she’s seen first-hand the ageing process.
Recently Daniel, who has Parkinson’s disease and has also suffered several strokes, has not been in great health and so, to relieve her mother of full-time care, Petra, Hamish and Judi have moved Daniel into the family home to better support him together.
“I have the capacity to help, so now Dad has me, Hamish and Mum looking after him, and he sleeps in our house so that Mum can catch up on her sleep,” Petra tells. “I know this is something many families face, and I’m very keen to promote and talk about intergenerational living because it does help. I would also like to stop calling people elderly and call them elders instead, as the Dutch do, because they have so much to teach us.”
Petra and Hamish also live with their youngest children, Jude, 17, and Teddy, 16, who are at high school, while their eldest Venetia, 19, is studying visual arts in Dunedin.
There is no doubt life is good for Petra and that things are going well, but she is always working away at it.
“Today I’m researching clarity,” she says enthusiastically. “In this tender, vulnerable and intense time, I think we can invite ourselves to find something true and good inside of us, like clarity. All of us can find it, even for a couple of minutes, because it’s there in our core selves.”
But Petra is also not getting too carried away with herself either.
“You know, on the day that the podcast was number one, I scrolled down the list of top podcasts until I got to the bottom of that list at 150,” she smiles. “And I knew that one day, my podcast would be there at the bottom and that will be okay too. I’m enjoying the moment for what it is, but I am in tune with the cycle of life and death. It’s natural.”
Sunday Sanctuary airs 7-9am Sundays on Today FM. The third season of Grey Areas with Petra Bagust is coming soon to Rova.