September-October 2025 Trestleboard

As the season turns toward autumn, I find myself thinking about the image of harvest. Earlier this year, we spoke about planting seeds, tending to the soil, and laboring together with patience. Autumn is the time when those labors show their results. Some crops come in full and abundant. Others do not. The point of the harvest is not only in what we gather but also in what we learn from the process of growing.

Our Lodge has been in a season of planting and tending. We have put energy into Craft Driven Conversations, ritual work, building improvements, fundraising, and community visibility. We have welcomed new Brothers into our midst and encouraged one another to step into fresh roles. That’s a lot of sowing and tending! Autumn invites us to pause and look at what has grown.

Some efforts have borne good fruit already. Others are still maturing. A few may need to be replanted next year in different soil, with different conditions. That is the way of any true harvest. What matters is that we have labored together in hope and in trust.

Recently, I had the chance to travel to Colorado and sit in Lodge with Brothers at Colorado Springs Lodge No. 76. I knew no one there, yet the moment I walked through the door, I was received as a Brother. The Worshipful Master even invited me to sit with him in the East, and I had the privilege of witnessing an Entered Apprentice give his proficiency. That experience reminded me that one of the fruits we reap from our shared labor in Masonry is a brotherhood without borders. Because we sow into the Craft here at home, we are able to enjoy fellowship and belonging wherever our travels take us.

In Masonry, the harvest is not measured in bushels or barns. It is measured in fellowship strengthened, in wisdom gained, in men made better by their work and by one another. Each Brother who has taken part in our labors this year, in large or small ways, has contributed to that harvest.

As we move through this season, I invite each of you to reflect on what you have gathered so far in 2025. What fruits of patience, commitment, or brotherly love do you see? Where has your labor been rewarded, and where do you sense the need for renewed planting?

May this autumn remind us that our Lodge, like any good garden, flourishes when we tend it faithfully, when we learn from the cycles of effort and rest, and when we gather the results with gratitude.