Jean Vanier, in Living Gently in a Violent World, writes of three activities vital to creating community:

1. Eating together around the same table.
2. Praying together.
3. Celebrating together.

Take stock of how much you do these three in your family, in your church community, and with your friends. Then find ways to increase that in the next six months and see whether you are living more gently.

To other cyclists:

• Stop biking on the sidewalk – that’s the most dangerous place to cycle!
• Why are you biking the wrong way down a one-way street? (Although I do this on occasion myself) And why are you doing that at night without any lights on your bike?

To drivers:

• It is safer for everyone if you signal your turn!
• Don’t honk your horn to let me know you are there. I can hear your vehicle from quite far away and your horn is incredibly loud. (All drivers should test their horn by having their kid honk it while they stand in front of the hood. Use horns sparingly around cyclists!)
• Please don’t cut off bikes – you could be delayed by just 10 seconds and go behind me, especially if you’re passing me and then slowing down to turn.

To people:

• Please stop wasting all that water washing your sidewalk / driveway!

The Israelites of the Bible had these verses of comfort in hard times:

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
[ selah ]
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
(Psalm 46 verses 1-5)

In the past, natural disasters were unexplainable and very beyond the control of people. Many were associated with the whims of fickle gods and minor deities.

If I were to write that Psalm today, I think I’d write it like this:

God is my safety net
always present in my need
I will not worry though my life is upset
and the complex world economy falters
Though employment supports run out
and insurance companies withhold their payments
[ pause to feel the force of these ]
There is peace that flows to make my heart glad
coming from the Creator God of the universe
This peace is for me, and is within me
He is my provider every day.