FRIENDS …

… some already known; some yet to be known …

Welcome to my website, and to this contemporary way of being in touch with each other. I’ve set it up because with the ending in 2004 of my fulltime teaching at Simon Fraser University, I needed another way to be easily contacted. I also wanted to pull together all my interests in one place so that I myself could see the whole picture, and keep things in balance to the best of my ability.

Looking back on my own life, I see some clearly discernible stages: child, student, priest and householder: first adulthood. Then came second adulthood, teaching at SFU. These were years of joy and sorrow, of seeking and finding, of the discovery and rediscovery of many new connections among faith, eros and mortality.

Now I find myself in third adulthood, called by some retirement--a word much in need of redefinition! Certainly, at least for those in good health, its touchstone is freedom. Every transition between stages was marked by an awakening of some kind; and in this present transition I am trying to pay attention to what new awakening the universe is asking of me. In a very basic sense I think of myself as a pilgrim, ready to continue my journey, and to learn as I go.

A couple of years ago I wrote a little song which expresses my feeling about this.

I am here
In the heart of God.
I walk the path
The saints have trod.
As I step forth,
Mercy takes my hand,
And leads me to
The Promised Land.

I thank a friend of mine for the suggestion that I place the image of the painting below on my website. She knew how important the painting is to me, as a kind of icon of my own soul, as a longtime companion on my journey, and as a work of art which calls me daily to authentic living.

In the other pages of this website you can read about some of my interests and activities (listed in the index on the left). Something that links them all is my conviction that we need to seek a better balance between individuality and community, and that the activities to which we give our time and energy must contribute to that.

This is especially important in this time of the Great Turning, a phrase which comes from eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and refers to the massive changes, mostly unrecognized, which are now taking place in our societies and in our planet.

Whether or not we are ever in contact, I wish you well. My hope for you, above all, is that you are in possession of your own soul and that you are moving forward on your own journey of heart and spirit.

The Holy Man, 1965 Stanislava (Velenka) Fanderlik (1914-1980), Czech and Canadian Acrylic on masonite, 38 x 42 inches

CONTACT INFORMATION
Mailing address: Box 19524, Centrepoint Mall, Vancouver, BC, V5T 4E7
Telephone: 604.709.0883
Email: donald_grayston@sfu.ca

PHOTO CREDITS: my portrait - Greg Ehlers, SFU; the painting - Cliff Caprani