Taking A Few Minutes Before Preparing For The Next Meeting

Today I am taking some time to relax and only making a couple of calls and sending a few emails. It is a day when I am able to enjoy what my lodge was able to accomplish last night by reading the overly gracious notes from the district deputy and my fellow brothers from the lodge. All the work came to fruition and the results were far beyond any expectations I ever thought of placing on the meeting. It truly was a great night.  

The night that we had been preparing and scrambling for over the past couple of months finally came and went without a hiccup during the evening. While we had a few setbacks during the weeks leading up to the district visitation and I had to take on a few more duties than I had planned on doing, the brethren came together and made last night a success. Being the first such meeting since becoming Secretary (the last visitation was my first meeting as a mason) I was incredibly nervous but over the past year I have come to find that even when things don’t go to plan we all come together as a lodge to make things happen. There has been no clearer example than that of last night’s meeting.

I spent the morning finishing up and revising the minutes and the rest of the day getting some projects done for the office (nice relaxing day off) before getting on a conference call in the early afternoon. After a quick shower and trips to Staples and the post office, I got to the lodge just before 4:00pm with a number of things that I had to do to prepare. While I knew exactly what I had to do, time seemed to be spinning around the clock faster than any other day that I could remember.

While I was able to greet a few brothers as they walked through the door and spoke to a few brothers as I helped to carry in the meal for the night, I didn’t really have much time to converse. Throughout the day, with brethren scattering about the building, I climbed and descended more stairs than I had in the past few weeks combined. Before the meeting ever started I was already beginning to tire. Of course, not having time to eat dinner didn’t help the situation either. After a few last minute scrambles, the meeting was set to begin.

Much like the earlier passing of the day, the meeting was a blur but thankfully I was prepared for every moment with copies of every piece of paper, document, and record needed. Additionally, the shirt that my cousin took care of for me was received with both great surprise and appreciation (mainly because it was something that would be used and not another mug or keychain). There were many moments to remember and ones that I will forever be proud to have been a part of.

However, the moments that will stand out for me or the rest of my life are the moments during the meeting when my fellow brothers took the floor and made speeches during which they thanked me for what I had done for them. While those moments were greatly appreciated and I am glad I could help in some small way the credit should really go to the lodge for what we have accomplished and to those individual brothers for putting forth the effort to ensure their recent success and recognition. It was certainly a night to remember and a night they we can all take pride in being members of this fraternity and of our lodge.