Common Ground Outreach / Weekly News / February 14th, 2016   Today, the Board of Common Ground Outreach had a bi-monthly meeting in which we discussed a wide range of topics including web development, fund raising and training opportunities.  We also talked about new ideas for bridging the divide between people in prison and people on the outside who want to be resources.  The fact is that we still incarcerate a huge number of citizens in the United States and many of those people are...

From a message given at Minneapolis Friends Meeting, January 17th, 2016 by Dr. Jim Haefemeyer. Prairies and the Sacred Community Today I want to talk about prairies. Watch the prairie carefully and you will see the divine at work, a delicate dance. I like to watch bumblebees. In October they were feeding on the asters that I was trying to cut back in my front yard. The asters are likely the bumblebees’ last meal before they nest in the ground for the winter. In the summer I saw pale g...

After arriving in Duluth in September last year, I immediately immersed myself in the creative culture here. I volunteered wherever possible: at church basement smörgåsbords, in a gingerbread city at the local Nordic cultural center, at the annual All Souls parade. I helped kids make Christmas ornaments in nearby Knife River, pitched in at cider-pressings and putting gardens to bed at a local public orchard, all along the way meeting artists, craftspeople, permaculturalists, musicians, and civic...