One Fast Month

It is hard to believe that a month has already passed since our son decided to surprise us. We had been planning for his anticipated arrival for many months but when he showed up we were taken off guard. Even if everything had gone according to plan I think we still would not have felt as if we were prepared. I guess that just comes with the territory.

Since that early February morning, things have been a little hectic to say the least. It has been both a challenge and a time of wonder watching him adapt to life outside of the womb. Each day there is something a little different. Sometimes it is a rather unpleasant surprise (hence the TMI Tuesday posts) while other times there are moments of awe when my son hears me come home from work and smiles.

The nights can sometimes be long (more so for my wife) and the days go by way too fast. I don’t know where the last month has gone. All the while we have done our best to adapt and get acquainted with the fact that our life is completely different and our priorities have changed significantly.

There have been moments when people have been tremendously helpful and there have been times when those people, contrary to their good intentions, have been quite the hindrance. All the while our son has be surprisingly understanding of all that is going on around him and, for the most part, has not unleashed a plethora of protesting cries. It is a steep learning curve which we sometimes struggle with but have, thus far, been able to keep up.

Now I find myself a lot left that I still have to learn, a stories that I look forward to sharing with my baby, and a schedule that still needs some tweaking. All of this tends to go out the window on a daily basis as our little boy wants nothing to do with schedules and plans. We are all trying to just take things as they come, coordinate the best we can, and see how each day and night plays out.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I can’t look forward to the future so I am slowly forming my baby bucket list that began germinating not long after we found out that we were having a child. Some of the things are common events during development like hearing his first words, watching him crawl and walk for the first time, and enjoying the silence as he sleeps through the night. Other things are very specific like sharing our hobbies, our family history, and taking him to the places that we enjoy visiting.

This is just a quick overview of what I am jotting down here and there. Don’t be surprised if you read a post in the future about many of the things that I am looking forward to doing and sharing with him. But, for now, I am going to keep it simple and enjoy the wonders of the first month and these first memories that my wife and I have of our new life as a growing family.

Still Staying Home But Getting Some Lodge Work Done

One of the things that I have yet to catch up on has been all the emails and other things that I need to get done for the lodge. I have been able to take care of a few things here and there but, overall, there is a mountain of ongoing and monthly projects that haven’t been checked off the list. Even my attendance at the usual weekly fellowship has been put on hold for the remainder of the month (at least there is a darn good reason for it).

Even some of the simple things like keeping current on the email have been on hold as any ‘work time’ that I have had has been dedicated to catching up on other work. Sometimes the lodge activities have to be moved down the list so that other things can get done. No that the backlog from the office has been completed and I am running through only current projects, I was finally able to get back to the lodge work that has been piling up.

Email was the first thing that I had to tackle and when I pulled up my account I was surprised to see that the unread messages still numbered less than a couple of dozen. After deleting the spam, I slowly went through each one by one, reading and answering when appropriate, from oldest to newest, until they were all taken care of. Thankfully, there was nothing too urgent and nothing that made me scramble to get something else done right away.

Next I started going back through my calendar trying to figure out all the events that were coming up and if I was going to be able to attend and/or participate. While the weekly fellowship has been put on the back burner, that doesn’t mean that everything was going to be put aside. With the Secretary Seminar a no go for this weekend (thankfully my new assistant was able to attend) it was time to look at March to see what was going to be manageable.

The stated meeting is the one thing that I don’t want to miss (still some work to do there) and the extra meeting should be fairly short this month so I want to keep that on the calendar as well. Everything else seems to be up in the air. There are many things that I don’t want to miss but I really have to get this new balance right. Now is the time to make sure my priorities are right so it is going to be a very careful process… one that I have a week to figure out. After all, I don’t want to end up like a Harry Chapin song.

A Few Interesting Developments At Lodge

First the first time this year I was finally able to get to the lodge at my usual time last night and stay relatively ahead of schedule for the entire evening. By the time the candidates arrived I had already sifted through the incoming correspondences and fielded a couple of calls from the brethren. Because of this I was able to focus more on what was going on around me and truly appreciate the hard work that was being done more so than I have been able to do in previous weeks.

However it was before I even left the office when I received an email from a candidate that took me back for a second. Some will read the contents in a negative way but I see the words as a very positive understanding of the importance of advancing to the next degree. This candidate, having postponed his third degree once before, reached out and requested that it be pushed back another month as he didn’t feel he was prepared to take the next step.

While he had missed a number of training nights due to other obligations since receiving his last degree, he was still far enough along that it wouldn’t have prevented him taking the next step. This was evident last night as he struggled a bit but was definitely retaining what he needed to know. However, I completely understood his desire to be properly prepared and arranged for his degree to take place in March.

The rest of the night revolved around the dreaded discussions of the politics of the lodge as well as the initiatives that many of us would like to see take place in the coming months. In my position I do my best to remove myself from the former but eagerly embrace the latter when it makes sense and will continue to help the lodge grow and increase participation. Spearheaded by a newly raised brother, the ideas for the lodge, especially those regarding the education of new masons, are impressive and can ensure our continued success. I guess we will have to see how quickly we can implement those programs.

For now I am going to do my best to keep up and stay on schedule with the projects that keep flowing in. With everything going on just doing this has become difficult leaving me scrambling before most meetings to make sure everything is in order for the evening. Well, it could happen.