Greetings Sisters and Brothers!

Happy New Year!  Let’s hope for a wonderful 2023!  New year, new beginnings… Let’s Make It Happen!

In our Moose home in Monroe, WI, there’s a picture/mirror in our hall with an inscription on it.  Many of you probably have the same picture hanging in your Moose homes. Now I’ve probably walked by that picture thousands of times in the 40 plus years as a member and never really took the time to pause and read the inscription.

The inscription goes like this:

Our Moose Family is a deeply rooted tree with branches of different strengths all receiving nourishment from an infinite source.

Our Moose Family is where character is formed, values are learned, ethics are created and society is preserved.

Our Moose Family is where all members contribute and share, cooperate and work and accept their responsibilities toward the good of the group.

Our Moose Family is where holidays are celebrated with feasting, birthdays acknowledged with gifts, and thoughts of days gone by kept alive with fond remembrances.

Our Moose Family is where each member can find solace and comfort in grief, pleasure and laughter in joy and kindness and encouragement in daily living.

Our Moose Family is a haven of rest, a sanctuary of peace and most of all, a harbor of love.

Such a beautiful sentiment in this message!  It’s my hope for each and every Moose Lodge to live by the words written on that beautiful picture.  We should all be very proud to belong to an organization with standards such as these.  I’m ever so glad that I took the time to pause and read the inscription. 

So my wish for all of you is to “pause” and read the inscription on that picture and then to live by the words that are inscribed.  Once you read those words, I hope they live on in your hearts forever.  I don’t know about you but I am ever so grateful to have such a wonderful Moose Family!

Thank you all so very much for everything that you do!  Mooseheart, Moosehaven and our communities truly do appreciate it!

Take care, be safe, stay well and always stay humble and kind!

Karyn Johnson

Grand Council Member

WI Chapter Advocate

ATM