For me, there is really nothing quite like reading on a screened in porch. Add in the sweet breeze off the bay and a cool glass of tea or lemonade or gasp even a shandy and i’m in heaven.

I had great books to read. They ranged from the meaningful to the totally useless. What a lovely buffet!

While i was alternately either stuffing or emptying my head, Steve was living in his own wonderland. We slept in a little cabin up a rise from the main cabin. So cozy. And he could practice and practice and practice and sleep and sleep and sleep. We both did a lot of that. Gotta get up to the cottage before you have to use your iphone flash light don’t you know.

But my cousin Doug’s a Quaker and so is Steve. So they could talk and talk. They’re both COs… more stuff to talk about. Steve doesn’t go to meeting much around here, because Sunday mornings are worship of another kind for him: jazz workshop! and have been for the last 19 years.

So to have the opportunity to go to meeting to hear Doug take the message and then to just hang with him was fun for all of us.

But the men sat and told their stories about being COs. War stories of a peaceful flavor. War stories we forget about. War Stories people need to hear. War stories that they needed to tell. Peace is not easy; it’s quite hard work actually. It demands conviction and commitment. Both these men have that. I was proud of them and happy for their stories.

Peace needs us to work on its behalf. To stand firm. Always.