Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Neighbors Transform Tent Encampment Into Shelter Village

Matthew Stone, who was living in a tent with his dog in the woods of a central Illinois city, was among the first 55 residents to move into Bloomington’s first shelter village. A fully enclosed campus with a bathhouse and community center and 48 tiny sleeping cabins, The Bridge can accommodate 56 adults. It cost $2.7 million, two thirds from private donations and the rest from a county grant. By meeting people’s basic needs, Home Sweet Homes Ministries provides the bridge people need to leave homelessness behind, says CEO Matt Burgess, and one person has already moved into permanent housing. “We got our bed over on the far wall. We got our microwave and refrigerator behind the door,” says Stone. “We got our armoire over here that we can put all of our clothes in, and then we got our desk and our chair.” Alarm clocks in each cabin help residents keep up with their appointments. Burgess came up with the idea after looking at four communities which had built shelter villages: Burlington, Vermont; Denver, Colorado; Missoula, Montana and Austin, Texas, and visited the Missoula shelter village.

Be The Change

Today, notice someone in your community whose struggle usually remains invisible to you. Let yourself shift from looking away to looking toward.

Sister Berta’s Legacy

In 1968, Sisters Berta Sailer and Corita Bussanmas were teaching at a Catholic elementary school. “One day, a mom said to us, we need a place for our small kids. And we were young and stupid and said, well, small kids can’t be a problem.” They opened their doors, and fixed breakfast for a few kids. They were soon touched by stories of life in shelters, cars, and abandoned structures. After lecturing a young 10-year-old about getting to school on time, he said “It’s very hard to get up this morning because there were so many rats on me last night.” One mother shared, “The scariest thing about an abandoned house is during the night, strangers come in the house and lay down next to you.” Sister Berta said, “We made every mistake known to man,” but they never quit. What began with a few kids in 1968 expanded to hundreds of kids today and every day through Operation Breakthrough.

Be The Change

Follow through on a small act today, with presence. Perhaps you will see the bandwidth expand; perhaps you will not. Know that it will.

Sleeping with Furniture Against the Door

At five, Neha Kirpal was told not to brush her teeth because her mother believed the toothpaste was poisoned. Her mother had schizophrenia, and for years their home was a place where reality shifted without warning—furniture barricaded against doors at night, fights that sent her brother hiding under tables and police knocking on their door. Then, at thirteen, her mother and brother disappeared. For the next decade, Neha searched for them while “parenting herself,” excelling at school and running ten hours a day to survive. When she finally found them, her mother was chained to a hospital bed. Today, Neha is co-founder of Amaha, an organization bringing mental healthcare to millions across India; and, more importantly, helping families feel less alone as they silently try to keep it all together. As she writes in her book, Homecoming, “How many psychiatrists today ask what is happening to the children in the house? Nobody asks these questions.” Neha, once a child who tried to disappear, is transforming her life’s formative challenge into the compassionate strength of helping thousands of families find the care and language she never had.

Be The Change

Think of a child or person in your community who might be quietly carrying something heavy. Ask them a real question today — not “how are you?” but something specific that gives them permission to be honest.

Why Pain Is Different From Suffering

It was an “utterly unfun experiment to be part of,” recounts Cortland Dahl with a smile. “But it was also very illuminating.” Lying in a brain scanner, participants in this research study were subjected to scalding water piped through a small thermode on their wrists — at regular intervals over and over, for hours. Before each jolt of heat, a sound would signal what was coming. The test subjects were either people who did not meditate or people with at least 10,000 hours of meditation practice. In non-meditators, the brain’s pain network lit up immediately at the sound, rehearsing future agony before it arrived. In the meditators? Their brains stayed quiet until the heat actually came — and then they felt it even more acutely. The difference wasn’t in the sensation, but in what happened next: “Suffering does not equal pain. Suffering equals pain times resistance.” When resistance drops to zero, pain remains but suffering vanishes. The meditators weren’t controlling the weather of experience; they were changing their relationship to the storm. This insight invites an curious idea: What if the difficult stuff in life isn’t something to avoid, but a doorway — one that opens only when we stop bracing against it?

Be The Change

Next time you feel physical or emotional discomfort, pause and notice your resistance to it — the clenching, the mental rehearsal, the wishing it away. For thirty seconds, see if you can stay present with the sensation itself without adding the layer of resistance. For more inspiration, join a live conversation with Cortland Dahl tomorrow!

Who’s Afraid of ‘the Night of Controversies’?

A packed room in Paris gathers not to reach consensus, but to practice something rare in today’s world: disagreeing well. At the Night of Controversies, over 600 people engage in structured debates on divisive topics like border abolition and environmental authoritarianism, where participants speak in timed turns and the audience shifts their positions not through coercion but through listening. The Institute of Desirable Futures, which organizes these sessions, offers a third path beyond withdrawal or domination — “listening to opposing opinions can enrich us,” they propose, treating diverse perspectives as raw material for building a shared future. By the end of one debate on borders, nearly everyone’s position had shifted in some direction, not because minds were changed by force but because understanding deepened. In an age when seventy-two percent of Republicans and sixty-three percent of Democrats view the opposing party as “more immoral” than other Americans, the event suggests that disagreement itself isn’t the crisis — our inability to navigate it is.

Be The Change

Today, find someone whose opinion genuinely irritates you on a topic you care about. Ask one real question about how they arrived at their view. Listen past your first impulse to counter-argue, and notice if understanding their reasoning, even slightly, shifts not necessarily what you believe, but how certain you feel about the complexity of the issue.

Beyond Words: the Pilot Who Became a Caregiver

A former pilot trades the cockpit for nursing homes, spending 100 days with people living with dementia. Outside the nursing home, Vienna’s sights and sounds buzz by as Michael rides his Vespa — construction sites, traffic lights, the city’s relentless pace. Inside the facility, time moves differently: getting dressed becomes a procedure, a smartphone’s security feature becomes an insurmountable obstacle. He meets Mr. Weninger, bedridden after a stroke, flailing his arms, speaking in what sounds like a foreign language without his dentures. He meets Matthias, who greets strangers with such innocent joy that the author feels like “an old know-it-all beside him.” He meets Erik, doing a 100-piece puzzle meant for people aged six and up, teaching him what he’d forgotten: the art of slowing down and the grace of trying a piece that doesn’t fit and smiling anyway. In a world obsessed with speed and achievement, Michael discovers that closeness arises where control ends. The moments that shine here aren’t on LinkedIn — they’re in a garden with Mr. Weninger, sunlight beaming on his face, as he orders apple juice one last time.

Be The Change

The next time you’re with someone who moves more slowly than you — physically, mentally, conversationally — resist the urge to rush them or check your phone. Match their pace completely, even for just ten minutes, and notice what shifts.

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Witnessing a Whale Birth, Scientists Find a Remarkable Amount of Teamwork

When researchers witnessed a sperm whale birth in the Caribbean, they discovered something remarkable: for three hours after the calf emerged, every whale in the pod took turns keeping the negatively buoyant newborn afloat — even those with no genetic relationship to the mother. The footage revealed what marine biologist Shane Gero calls “a complex cooperative society” where helping transcends kinship, reflecting an expectation of mutual aid. As one researcher observed, just as most humans would help someone giving birth in the street, these whales responded to need with coordinated care. The birth offers a mirror to our own potential — a palpable mirror of how survival, for whales and humans alike, depends on choosing connection over division.

Be The Change

Today, notice someone struggling who isn’t “yours” to help — not your family, not your friend, not your responsibility — and choose to assist anyway. Like the unrelated whales who took turns lifting the newborn to breathe, let yourself be moved by trusting that we build the kind of society we want to live in through these unrequired acts of care.

This Month’s DailyGood Digest

As March blossoms into April, we take a look at the DailyGood tapestry woven with stories of transformation, resilience, and our interconnections.

This past month, Aterah Nusrat explored the profound potential of a collective transcendent emergence, inviting us to redefine our identity amidst a world in flux. David Bonbright shed light on how interconnected action can transform complex societal issues when we embrace ecosystem thinking. Jessica Lahey’s decision to donate a kidney revealed a life-changing reciprocity, while Shanna B. Tiayon showed us that true organizational resilience comes from embracing vulnerability. Dharma Lab’s story of not missing your life reminded us to be present amidst the chaos, while Gautam John shared how hitting rock bottom can be a foundation for renewal. A remarkable 17 year-old’s insights on peace painted a vibrant canvas of hope, and a farmer’s journey from how to who points out the power of aligning with nature’s rhythm. Together, these stories illuminate the spirit of humanity, reminding us that when we remember the inextricable depths of our interconnectedness, each person or situation we encounter is perhaps just walking us home.

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