Shortly after becoming Chairman of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, Donald Eadie was told that he had a degenerative disc disease. Following three major spinal operations, he was forced to retire, and to face the letting go of identity and role, feelings of marginalisation and abandonment - living with the death of the old life, and not being able to imagine a new one with meaning and purpose. Jesuit priest and writer Gerard Hughes accompanied Donald during this time. 'The borderlands are the place of exploration and discovery. They are the new centre,' he said. And paradoxically, in time, Donald began to experience the move away from the centre of a busy life to the edge as a journey deeper into the heart of things.