The Story of Your Neighborhood
A few years ago, I saw a sign on a vacant lot in my neighborhood that said, “First Nations Garden Coming Soon.” This lot, which is on the...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Nov 24, 2021
- 2 min
Ask, Seek, Bake Them Tasty Treats
I love my neighborhood and find great delight and value in knowing my neighbors. But it can also feel strange to simply go up and meet...
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Lydia Krug Benda
- Oct 7, 2021
- 4 min
The Stories We Tell
Every night when I was a young child, I begged my father to tell me stories from his youth. He called them, “School of Hard Knocks,” and...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Sep 30, 2021
- 4 min
Hear the People
It was a cold day in March when I made the two-block walk to the neighborhood community center in the park. The path was lit with...
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Lydia Krug Benda
- Sep 23, 2021
- 3 min
Muddy, Bloody Childhood
I watched from the kitchen window as my two boys played in the backyard yesterday. They’re two and five, and they have a love/hate...
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Sara Johnson
- Sep 9, 2021
- 2 min
Community Directories and Supporting Your Local Network
When I moved to St. Louis from Detroit a few years ago, I was eager to get connected in my new neighborhood. One of the first resources I...
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Lydia Krug Benda
- Sep 2, 2021
- 2 min
Being There
I painted our house the other day. It’s a small, ranch-style house, so don’t get too impressed. My dad and father-in-law chipped in, too....
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Danielle Tietjen
- Aug 26, 2021
- 3 min
Community Garden Adventures: A Toddler Runs Amok
This past Sunday we hosted a gathering at our community garden. It was a time for neighbors to come together, help weed the plots,...
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Don Everts
- Aug 19, 2021
- 3 min
What Part of the Neighborhood Am I?
When I was a young child, I got in trouble a lot. And those were just the times I was caught. I’m thinking especially of the few years...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Aug 12, 2021
- 2 min
The Best and the Most
Each park in our city has a playground and oftentimes a water feature. A block from our house is our park, and it has a wading pool right...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Aug 5, 2021
- 4 min
Who is Worthy of Kindness?
I needed to shovel the snow for the third day in a row yesterday. I started to shovel in front of our house. Not long after I began...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Jul 29, 2021
- 2 min
Forgiveness Among Neighbors
Neighbors share a unique relationship due to their constant proximity to one another. When tensions arise, it often creates challenges...
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Minh Chau Ngoc Vo
- Jul 22, 2021
- 3 min
Apprenticeships Bring People Together
If you’re trying to unite a neighborhood, it’s common that you will be working with two groups that are very different from each other in...
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Joe White
- Jul 8, 2021
- 3 min
Strategically Placed to Love Your Neighbors
You are strategically placed to love eight other families. Those eight families live in the three houses across the street, the three...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Jun 24, 2021
- 2 min
The Gift of Rehoming
I saw it before I made it up the stoop. There was a gift bag with pretty paper sticking out the top and a decorative tag dangling from...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Jun 17, 2021
- 2 min
Who’s Welcome In My Home
We live in a little hundred-year-old Tudor house on the north side of Minneapolis. Our second story is a one-bedroom mother-in-law...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Jun 3, 2021
- 2 min
Winter Walking—and Reconnecting
Walking has always been a way for folks to get outside, move their bodies, stay healthy, walk their dogs, and take young kids on a...
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Minh Chau Ngoc Vo
- May 27, 2021
- 4 min
What You Don’t Know
It’s commonly said that there are things you don’t know, things you know that you don’t know, and things you don’t know that you don’t...
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Joe White
- May 20, 2021
- 2 min
Co-Investing for the Neighborhood’s Common Good
Loving your neighbors requires moving from vague familiarity with the people who live around you to co-investing with them for your...
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Rici and Phil Skei
- May 13, 2021
- 2 min
What Good Can Come from Here?
Just nine days before Christmas in 2006, our family moved to a new neighborhood. Well, actually, we moved to a neighborhood that was new...
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Stories
"A good story makes you thankful to be alive because it reminds you that while sometimes painful, life is indeed beautiful and even magical."
— Donald Miller