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Banner photo by Lee Skiver

Greetings, Pete Geeks and pipe smokers across the globe!
The IPSD 2026 Challenge this year was a simple one with far-reaching implications:
How does your Peterson pipe bring you peace or help you be a peace-maker?
Every one of the responses below is worth spending some slow time with,
pondering & piping, and every one of them will reward you.

Beannacht le do phíopa!
Happy pipe smoking!

Gilbert Ludwig CPG. FINLAND. It is the ritual. Selecting and preparing the tobacco, packing the bowl, fire it up and then maintaining the ember through gentle puffs. A mindful sequence that slows you down. I believe the value is in less the smoke itself,  but in breaking out of the fast pace of everyday life. The slowness reduces stress and engages my mind in predictable, controlled motions. It makes me calmer in tense situations.

It is, then, also about personal reflection and contemplation. The pipe smoking ritual is a permission to step back and let thoughts settle.

And then there’s the physical sensations of a warm bowl, the divine smell of the blend, the sound of the ember and the gentle breath-work of puffing, all of which pull attention away from intrusive thoughts. It empowers presence and embodied mindfulness.

The ritual brings me peace and makes me more peaceful, and I like to believe it makes me a better person.

XL18 Oom Paul Cumberland Silver Spigot filled with Pesse Canoe Oriental Flake.

Dan Chasin, CPG. UNITED STATES.  Happy IPSD! Below is my 20FB Sandblasted Supreme hallmarked 2021. I don’t know if my pipe helps me be a peacemaker, but I know it brings me peace. We all enjoy our pipes in our own ways. I don’t smoke my pipe while driving or working like I see some people do and that’s great if that’s how they get their enjoyment. For me I don’t like to associate having a pipe with work or any real tasks. For me it’s an act of relaxation.

Going through the ritual of picking the tobacco and pipe that best suits the blend, usually one picks the other. There are times I really want to smoke a specific pipe and that will determine which tobacco is smoked or visa versus. I make sure I have enough time allotted because I don’t want to be “rushed” through the bowl just to make sure I finish. The whole name of the game for me is relaxing or bringing peace to my mind by slowing down. Whether I’m watching a baseball game, spending time with friends and family, if I’m smoking a pipe the act alone for me at least, insists that I relax and bring myself some peace. Hope everyone has a great IPSD 2026!!

Clint Stacy, CPG. UK.  In his 1939 essay ‘Learning in Wartime’, C.S. Lewis contemplates the concept of fiddling while Rome burns. Lewis argues that in times of crisis we shouldn’t stop doing the things that are important to us as these are exactly the times that we should embrace and cherish such things. Lewis also contends that if you put off the pleasures of life to wait until the crisis has passed, you will inevitably just be putting these things off for ever, as one crisis is often followed by another. This approach from Lewis I believe can be applied to pipe smoking in the modern age. If you wait for the quiet moment where you can ‘just have a minute’ to come along, you might be waiting some time because there will always be something else that needs your attention. The pipe is the perfect way to make room for a bit of peace and reflection in a very hectic world.

This rather scarred Patent has obviously had rather a hard life but now it rests in my stewardship, it smokes well and long enough to sit and put the world to right. I like, as I smoke, to think about who previously owned it, and its journey to me. It rests quite appropriately on a piece of bog pine found by my friend Wayne in Sutherland in Scotland and has obviously ‘rested’ itself  quite peaceful for thousands of years.

Martin Kollmann, CPG. UNITED STATES. My peace with my pipe comes on those slow walks through nature where you have time to notice the little things and what is important in life. Today I chose my PSOI B10 to commemorate the day.

Simon Gilles, CPG. FRANCE.  Disassociating peace from pipe smoking would be like removing the cheddar from a hamburger. Impossible, heresy even!

I necessarily become a peacemaker when I smoke because I keep the pipe between my teeth, preventing me from speaking without dropping it, especially as this Pat OB and its chubby stem are comfortable but force silence.

The pipe also brings together people who are so far apart geographically and culturally, creating a unique bond around the same passion, transcending all differences. This state of grace is rare in these troubled times and deserves to be preserved.

Ed Patton, CPG. UNITED STATES.  My Peterson Pipe brings me peace, in the simple act of pausing.  The constant swirl of activity surrounding me, the flood of thoughts & priorities competing for my attention, the incessant interruptions, never seem to stop.  But they do pause, if only for a moment.

I begin the ritual.  Consider the pipe, then the leaf.  Flame, smoke, a fragrant aroma rises.  Pause.  Contemplate.  Savor the moment.  Be at peace.  And be thankful for the opportunity to be part of a much larger history, on this International Peterson Smoking Day 2026.

Ralle Perera, CPG. SWEDEN.*

… and Ralle forwards Pipes of Peace, which you may just remember:

David Fricke, CPG. UNITED STATES.

When things get tense, I find that peace can be restored at the button of a favorite pipe.
Relaxation can bring a slower, lasting calm after an hour with a good companion pipe.
When family stress causes anxiety among siblings a pipe along with a meeting of the adult children facilitates being a peacemaker between participants.
My companion Peterson prepares me in the right frame to go peacefully among the people.

Smoking C&D Anthology 2023 in Peterson Pub pipe 2023.

Michael Mikropoulos, CPG. GREECE.  Some days I come home irritated by the behavior of the people around me. I begin the ritual of preparing my pipe and finally light it on my balcony, looking into the depths of the landscape at the snow-capped peaks of Mount Pangaion. As the smoke rises and mixes with the white of the snow in my gaze, I feel the soothing numbness of my mind and I understand that this is a unique moment of peace and forgiveness for everything that has upset me in the previous hours. In that moment I am certainly a better person who deeply understands how little sense it is to argue with someone, instead of enjoying the simple moments by letting your spirit rise with the smoke to the pure, higher peaks of life.  For IPSD 2026 I chose to send you a photo of three favorite pipes from my Kapruf collection, the 02BB, 412 and 445.

Brad sent me several excellent photos of some amazing Systems, but this one really resonated with me when I read his words. Notice how the background is in tight focus, the foreground blurred, showing how the pipe transfers the pipeman into that wonderful space. Awesome.

Brad Pennington, CPG. UNITED STATES.  They help bring peace because I slow down, become more present, and breathe more calmly.

Marlowe Sharpe, CPG. CANADA. Loading, lighting and tending my pipes causes me to focus on something other than current worries.  Watching the smoke rise and dissipate slowly into the trees is meditative.

Lee Skiver, CPG. UNITED STATES.  For this year’s IPSD, I select my straight Dublin Pub Pipe, perched here next to a rack I made for my practice bagpipe chanter. While I’m usually reaching for a bent system, I love the heft and great smoking qualities of this pipe, not least of which the really well-executed P-Lip.

It’s also funny that this year’s PPN IPSD theme is “peace”… something this world could certainly use more of, with great alignment for Lent. in both my family and reading life, the concept of the “peace pipe” has come up independently in the last week. Once, when my son asked me what it meant to “smoke the peace pipe”—he’s learning about American Indian culture and heritage in history class. Then again, in a new book I acquired, Liturgies of the Wild, by Martin Shaw, which opens with a shaman conversing with the clouds, pipe in hand.

But, to me, Peterson Pipes are the pipes of peace for three reasons:

1. The natural contemplation required to partake fully in a Peterson smoak (packing, lighting, tamping, metered puffing, etc.)
2. The brotherhood that surrounds Peterson smokers of all shades, and the connection that I feel with them when I put flame to baccy in one of Chas. Peterson’s descendant pipes.
3. Even a half-decent, abbreviated Peterson smoke provides a mental, physical and spiritual “reset” that forces me to put all things into better perspective.

Although I think it’s often used in 12-step programs, the Serenity Prayer** comes to mind as an aid to peace—it settles the mind and helps develop inner peace, which, undoubtedly, is where all peace must start. For years, I kept a copy of the prayer on my person, since it was introduced to me by my high school theology teacher, a Franciscan brother. On at least two occasions, I gave away copies to people who I thought needed them. I hope they were able to likewise do the same if/when they saw the same need in others.

For me, I think, if I’m not channeling peace, should I expect anyone else to do likewise?

Stephano, as you know if you follow these IPSD posts, is a master of the still life.

Stephano Zerbi, CPG. SWITZERLAND.  Here my pipe of peace. A Peterson’s meerschaum because of her size, color and fragility is always a pipe to find and bring peace, for me. And as Albert Einstein said in 1950: “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs.”

D.H. Billings CPG. UNITED STATES.

I have NOT forsaken my beloved 4 / 309, but the 9 / 307 is now almost
on an equal footing for me–not the recent “9BC” slimline version,
but the Chunky XL307. Seen above as an “XL307BC” with an incredible Fletch Hiner amber acrylic P-Lip.
FLETCH, WHERE ARE YOU?

Mark Irwin, CPG. TEJAS. When I first saw Band of Brothers several years ago, one character I found haunting was Eugene “Doc” Roe, the medic from Louisiana we meet during the Battle of Bastogne. He was the only medic to serve with Easy Company from D-Day through Austria, but while Stephen E. Ambrose’s classic book mentions Doc several times, there’s no mention of what motivated him through the horrors of the war. In the film, Doc is seen reciting lines from something that seemed familiar but that I’d forgotten. It turned out to be this, which I try as often as possible to meditate on when I first light my pipe. You may know it:

Make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may seek more to console than be consoled,
To understand more than be understood,
To love more than be love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
In pardoning that we are pardoned,
And in dying that we are reborn.

You may know it as the “Peace Prayer” and even know who is supposed to have written it, but the important thing for me is to pause, especially if the day has been a trying one, and give each line some heart time with each breath of the pipe.

Beannacht le do phíopa!
A blessing on your pipe!

Notes

* Ralle is a student of the Irish literary classics, as you know if you’d been around the blog for a few years. His cartoon today references a famous poem by Flan O’Brien:

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When money’s tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A pint of plain is your only man.

When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare –
A pint of plain is your only man.

In time of trouble and lousey strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life –
A pint of plain is your only man.

** The Serenity Prayer exists in several forms. This is the short one currently used by AA:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.

There is also a longer version in use by many Christians.

Many thanks to the talented Pete Geeks from around the globe
who took time to reflect and be part of today’s post.
Their thought & photography are alike praiseworthy.

CODA

Old Man in a Hat, aka Ken Sigel, CPG. MYSTIC AMERICA.

Intellectual Property of Kapp & Peterson and Laudisi Enterprises
used with their gracious permission.