Garfield Masonic Lodge #501

09/04/2026

The Lesson Is Greater Than the Wound.

Life has a way of leaving marks on all of us.

A disagreement in Lodge.

A failed event.

A Brother who let you down.

A decision you wish you could take back.

Criticism that lingered longer than it should have.

We all carry hurts.

The question is...

What are we going to do with them?

If we focus only on the hurt, we remain trapped by it.

We replay the conversation.

We relive the disappointment.

We allow yesterday to define tomorrow.

But a Mason is called to something greater.

Every Working Tool teaches us that refinement comes through effort.

Every rough ashlar bears the marks of the chisel.

Not because it was being destroyed...

But because it was being prepared.

The same is true of us.

Every hardship carries a lesson.

Every setback offers an opportunity to grow in patience, humility, resilience, or wisdom.

That doesn't mean the hurt wasn't real.

It simply means we refuse to let it be the final chapter.

The Great Work isn't about pretending life is easy.

It's about becoming the kind of man who can transform difficulty into character.

Who can replace resentment with understanding.

Failure with experience.

Pain with purpose.

The strongest Brothers I know aren't the ones who've avoided hardship.

They're the ones who chose to learn from it.

So whatever you're carrying today...

Ask yourself one simple question:

Am I holding onto the wound...
..or am I carrying forward the lesson?

Because one will keep you exactly where you are.

The other will build the man you're becoming.

"If you focus on the hurt, you will continue to suffer. If you focus on the lesson, you will continue to grow."

09/04/2026

Food for thought.

Power Doesn't Reveal Your Position. It Reveals Your Character.

It's easy to be kind when life is easy.

It's easy to be humble when no one is watching.

It's easy to speak of virtue when you're the one taking orders.

The real test comes when the roles are reversed.

When you're elected Worshipful Master.

When you're appointed to a committee.

When you're entrusted with authority.

When someone looks to you for leadership.

Abraham Lincoln is often credited with saying:

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Freemasonry isn't about creating men who seek power.

It's about creating men who are worthy of it.

The Working Tools remind us that leadership is never a privilege to be enjoyed.

It's a responsibility to be carried.

A man who uses his office to dominate has misunderstood the purpose of leadership.

A man who uses it to mentor...

To encourage...

To educate...

To unite...

Has begun to understand the Great Work.

Titles eventually fade.

Jewels are returned.

Chairs are occupied by someone else.

But the way you treated your Brothers while you held that authority...

That becomes your legacy.

The strongest leaders don't demand respect.

They earn it.

Not through fear.

Not through ego.

But through humility, integrity, and service.

In the end, the greatest measure of a Mason is not how high he rose within the Lodge...

It's how many others he helped rise with him.

Power doesn't change a man.

It reveals the man he already is.

09/04/2026

If the shoe fits, wear it.

"If You Hate, You Have Lost."

No, Confucius was not a Freemason. He lived nearly 2,000 years before the founding of speculative Freemasonry as we know it today.

Yet one of the beautiful things about our Craft is that it encourages us to seek wisdom wherever it may be found.

Whether it comes from the Bible, Plato, Confucius, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, or any number of great thinkers throughout history, truth doesn't become less valuable simply because it originated outside the Lodge.

Confucius' words are a powerful reminder:

"If you hate, you have lost."

Hatred rarely harms the person it's aimed at.

It consumes the person carrying it.

It clouds judgment.

It poisons relationships.

It steals peace.

As Freemasons, one of our principal tenets is Brotherly Love. That doesn't mean we agree with everyone. It doesn't mean we excuse wrongdoing or ignore injustice.

It means we refuse to let bitterness govern our hearts.

The strongest Mason isn't the one who wins every argument.

He's the one who can disagree without becoming hateful.

He can correct without humiliating.

He can stand firmly for what is right without surrendering his character in the process.

In a world that profits from outrage and division, that kind of self-mastery is becoming increasingly rare.

The Working Tools teach us to chip away at our own rough edges—not to sharpen them into weapons against one another.

If hatred takes root within us, we've already surrendered the very thing we're trying to protect: our own character.

Perhaps that's why wisdom is timeless.

The names change.

The centuries change.

The languages change.

But the lessons remain.

The goal of Freemasonry isn't simply to collect knowledge.

It's to become the kind of man who can live it.

09/01/2026

Conspiracy theories can be dangerous...

09/01/2026

A sad and troubling sight from Indianapolis. The Scottish Rite Cathedral was deliberately vandalized, with historic stained glass damaged and anti-Masonic messages left behind. Freemasonry has been surrounded by conspiracy theories for generations, but repeating falsehoods and fear does not make them true, and this is where that kind of hatred can lead. May this beautiful building be restored, and may reason overcome ignorance.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19S7RfU2Mx/

09/01/2026

Everyone should be getting ready for the Fall Reunion! We are!

Share the Knowledge

09/01/2026

What IS in a Masonic Bible?

08/31/2026

THIS is found in every Masonic Lodge.

08/29/2026

08/29/2026

Libbie Midgley's bedroom at the Midgley Museum.