About Me
I spent 22 years in the Coast Guard as a marine mechanic. That work trains you to see systems. Every organization is a transmission. Each gear affects every other gear. You can’t touch one component without creating movement somewhere else. And you learn to stay calm when everything is on fire. Literally.
Here’s something I didn’t realize until recently: the military trained me in organizational renewal without ever giving me language for it. Every year, transfer season hits and you lose 30% of your crew. They leave. New people show up. You cycle through forming, storming, norming, performing all over again. Every single year for two decades. Then, every 2-4 years, sometimes more frequently, you yourself transfer. New place, team you didn’t build, leaders you didn’t choose, people you never would have hired.
In the military, that’s just Tuesday. In the private sector, people pay consultants serious money for it.
The human-centered piece came from having no other option. I couldn’t screen out people with stuff going on at home. I couldn’t wait for the perfect hire. I had to work with whoever showed up and help them become someone who could succeed in an environment none of us fully chose. As Chief Engineer, I kept the ship running. But as a Chief? I kept the people running. Translated deck plate reality into language the wardroom could understand. Built bridges between what leadership thought was happening and what actually was.
Antarctica twice. Thousands of students through the Chief Petty Officer Academy. C-suite executives and stay-at-home moms launching their dreams. The gift is the same for all of them: see what’s possible before they do, fan the flames, get out of the way while staying close enough to catch them if they stumble.
Halfway through my military career, I hit darkness. Not the dramatic kind. The quiet kind that creeps in when you realize you’re living everyone else’s definition of success. Started pouring Wayne Dyer and every wisdom teacher I could find into the empty spaces. Learned that Master Chiefs can feel just as lost as anyone.
That search changed everything. Only after I started finding myself did life trust me with the gift of fatherhood. Funny how the universe works.
Retirement hit different. Spent four years remembering who I was underneath the uniform. Discovered that my greatest gift isn’t my leadership experience or military bearing. It’s my intuition. When I actually listen to it, it’s never wrong.
These days I’m a Past Master and Lodge Secretary in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Homeschool dad who takes college classes for fun. QHHT practitioner. Executive coach. The common thread: I put wind in people’s sails. Always have.
I’m a universalist-oneness-wisdom-Christian. Basically means I see truth everywhere and God in everything. Ancient wisdom keeps getting repackaged because truth doesn’t change, only the wrapper. The Hermetic principles pop up in Masonry, military leadership, quantum physics, usually without people realizing how old these ideas are.
My life philosophy: Be Love, Teach Love, Have Fun. Sounds simple. It’s not.
Square Thoughts started as a place to organize my Masonic musings. It’s becoming something more. A space where military precision meets mystic curiosity, where ancient wisdom gets practical application, where we can be both grounded and spiritual without choosing sides.
I want to help Masonry reconnect with its esoteric roots. I want to help lodges see themselves clearly so they can make honest decisions about their future. I want to build bridges between worlds, the same thing I’ve always done.
I don’t have it all figured out. Still learning, still growing, still saying yes too often. But I know this: we rise together or not at all.
Want to go deeper? Hit reply. Tell me your story. The best conversations happen between posts.
Be Love,
Brother Rob
