Peterborough DDGM 2009/2010 Gary Ballard

 

   Message from the Peterborough D.D.G.M. 2009 – 2010:

Brethren

A very successful Lodge of Instruction was held in Lindsay on 22 October 2009. Twenty-five members from Peterborough District joined Brethren from Victoria, Muskoka Parry Sound and Ontario Districts for a total attendance of one hundred and twenty-one. As usual, no matter how well you are conversant with the Degrees heretofore conferred on you, attendees acquire an increased level of information and knowledge.

There are three Official Visits and an Installation this month. The Travelling Square will go to Norwood and a four-District Secretary Workshop will be held I look forward to seeing the Masters, Secretaries and other members at these events. Of the many events that are happening this month, the one we should all observe is Remembrance Day, be it a Memorial Service or quietly by yourself for a couple of minutes at 11:00 a.m. on the 11th day. Whether we agree with the deployment of troops in the past, present or future is an opinion that every individual has a right to express in our country. Unfortunately that right has largely come from the spilling of human blood. In the minds of the world, on the first 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the tragic suffering and the weapons of war had been stilled forever. A world of peace and prosperity would rise from the ruins. How ironic that the ―peace treaty‖ signed that day was a contributing factor to the next World War.

The story of Sand and Stone: Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt but, without saying anything, wrote in the sand, ―Today my best friend slapped me in the face.‖ They kept on walking until they found an oasis where they decided to bathe. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started to drown but his friend saved him. After he recovered from the near-drowning, he wrote on a stone, ―Today my best friend saved my life.‖ The friend who had slapped and saved his friend asked him, ―After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?‖ The friend replied ―When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away but, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can erase it.‖

If the world would learn to write their hurts in the sands and to carve their benefits in stone, we would be better able to offer, and accept, a hand as a pledge of friendship even when there is a difference of opinion, to make every effort to accept that our ideas are not the only options so that order, peace and harmony can prevail.

Sincerely and fraternally yours,
R.W. Bro. Gary T. Ballard, Peterborough District Deputy Grand Master, 2009 - 2010.