Peace, Somehow

Mar 22, 2026

Here is my submission for this week’s Stories from the Jukebox prompt, Peace Somehow by Avi Kaplan, chosen by Chris B. Writes .

0:00

-2:28

If you’ve ever been the peacemaker, you get it. There’s a status quo. An eggshell you don’t break. Tense your footsteps and you won’t make a noise.

Everyone is quiet. Everyone is calm.

But everyone is screaming.
And somehow, you’re the only one who can hear it.

Kevn wrote a song called Peacemaker. It wasn’t about me. It wasn’t even about the kind of peace I kept. But it played on a loop in my head. A theme song. A plea.

Peacemaker, make me peace and I will be the man you seek.1

So I moved out on my own.

Quiet.

No dogs barking.
No loud televisions.
No one fighting.
No one throwing nobody up against a wall.

Quiet.

Peace. Somehow.

But not really.

I was still the peacemaker. The referee. The one scanning the room before I even walked into it. I saw the problem before it happened. The tightened jaw. The annoyed glance. The car door slamming.

And I had your drink ready. A cold compress waiting.
A softer word. A lighter tone. A redirect.
Before you knew you needed it.
Before you could tip the scale toward chaos.

I made peace, somehow.

For you.

But inside me? Troubled waters.
Always churning. Always bracing.
Always hearing what hadn’t happened yet, just beneath your current.

Peacemaker, make me peace…

It wasn’t a moment. No big stand. No slammed door. No speech. No final decision.

It was quieter than that.
It was an emergence.

I stopped stepping in. Stopped smoothing it over. Stopped catching what wasn’t mine to catch.

I let you spin. I let you spiral. I let the room stay loud.

And mine didn’t collapse.

And someone else picked up the pieces.

Somehow—
I had peace.

My house is still quiet. But it’s a choice now. Not a shield.
I can let music fill the rooms.
Loud, messy, alive.

I can walk into noise and not feel it rise up inside me.
Because the chaos isn’t here anymore.

Not in me.

And that’s the first real peace I’ve ever known.

I found peace.
Somehow.

Here’s the mixtape.

Peacemaker — Drivin’ N Cryin’
3AM — Matchbox Twenty
The Night We Met — Lord Huron
Let It Be — The Beatles
I Don’t Care What You Call Me — David Ford
Here — Mumford & Sons and Chris Stapleton
Peace Somehow — Avi Kaplan