Common Memory
I don’t know what your neighborhood looks like, but I live in a highly diverse, mostly Black community on the Northside of Minneapolis....
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Rici and Phil Skei
- Jan 5
- 2 min
Doing Harm While Trying to do Good
Consider this: hopeful people in a hopeful neighborhood can cause harm while trying to do good. For those of us seeking to cultivate...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Nov 11, 2021
- 2 min
Maria
Last year there was a deadly crash in our neighborhood. The driver was a husband, father, and sole breadwinner for his family. He was...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Oct 14, 2021
- 3 min
Mobilizing Neighbors After a Crisis
Last night, just as our family finished watching a movie, we heard a crash. It was so loud that my son dropped to the ground and covered...
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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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Danielle Tietjen
- Sep 16, 2021
- 2 min
The Way We Care for One Another
The last month has seen both of our cars in the shop multiple times. It has been frustrating to navigate our family’s needs and errands...
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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 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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Danielle Tietjen
- Jul 15, 2021
- 3 min
Rescuing A Lost Child
Over and over I have seen it proved true that neighbors are the best resources for one another. One morning a few months back I was...
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Danielle Tietjen
- Jul 1, 2021
- 4 min
The Vigil
I stood outside in a dark alley in January. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. A 21-year-old Black man was shot three days prior. My...
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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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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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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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Rici and Phil Skei
- Apr 29, 2021
- 2 min
You Can Change the World ... One Neighborhood at a Time
“You can change the world!” It’s a declaration we’ve all heard at one time or another and we believe it wholeheartedly. It is something...
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Joe White
- Apr 8, 2021
- 2 min
COVID-19 Inspires New Opportunities to Love Neighbors
As the coronavirus pandemic produced its devastating effects around the world, a handful of neighbors in Fresno, California, decided to...
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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