Founder of a Cafe Chain with a Cause Has a Full Circle Moment

Ten years ago, Amy Wright opened Bitty & Beau’s Coffee with the quiet hope that one day her son Beau, who was born with Down syndrome, might want to work there. She sat in her car before walking in, already a little choked up, knowing what she was about to witness: not just her son in a uniform behind a counter, but the living proof of what she’d spent a decade building toward, inspired by him. “I’ve spent the last 10 years hoping to create more opportunities for people with disabilities,” she said. “Today, I got to see what that looked like through the eyes of my own son.” What the video captures, beneath the high-fives and the jumping and the “I love you’s,” is something far more rare and valuable than success.

Be The Change

Today, think of someone in your life who has been quietly working toward something — practicing, training, building confidence in ways you may have overlooked — and encourage them by telling them specifically how you see them growing.

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The Circle That Will Not Close

When Shoukei Matsumoto led a simple floor-sweeping exercise at a gathering, he noticed nearly everyone had the same story running through their minds: “Am I doing this right? Faster. Get it done.” Beneath that voice, Matsumoto notes, is an ethos of optimization. “The word optimization, by itself, is empty. You always optimize toward something. Toward ‘clean,’ when sweeping. Toward ‘results,’ at work. That ‘clean,’ that ‘results,’ becomes the target. But look closely, and the target turns out to be something merely set in place. Let’s say clean means this. Let’s say results mean this number. Someone, somewhere, agreed to it. At the start, it was a provisional frame.” Now, that frame has become mistaken for reality itself. But “no frame is the world.” Drawing on the Japanese concept of shu-ha-ri, Matsumoto traces how mastery is not about leaving the frames, but rather, cultivating the capacity to move seamlessly among them: “entering and leaving, never binding yourself to any one.” Through the analogy of calligraphy painting, he describes the process of engaging with (but being empty of) forms: the moment the brush lifts off the paper on its own, the circle stays open, and the self that was watching quietly disappears into the act of drawing.

Be The Change

Today, notice a form or provisional frame in your life — a “let’s say” that has quietly hardened into “it is” in your mind. Perhaps it’s a measure of success, productivity, or worth that you inherited or agreed to at some point and have since stopped questioning. Push yourself to find another definition, another way of seeing or measuring it.

The ‘Civic Hour’ in France

When a French civil servant read that an elderly woman in Paris had been deceased in her apartment for four months before anyone noticed, he didn’t just shrug and move on with his day — he asked what kind of society allows that to happen, and then quietly set about changing it. The result is l’Heure Civique (“Civic Hour”), a growing movement across France that asks nothing more of its volunteers than an hour a month: delivering groceries, playing Scrabble with nursing home residents, walking schoolchildren to music class. Its founder, Atanase Périfan, built the program around a disarmingly simple premise: “There are 65 million people in France. If each person contributes just one hour — and who doesn’t have an hour? — the potential is massive.” 24,000 volunteers later, the math is proving him right. Pascal Guy, who first came to the program as someone who needed a free meal and now volunteers regularly, perhaps says it best: “Most of the time, it does me good to come here, to feel a bit useful.”

Be The Change

Think of one person nearby who might welcome an hour of your company or supportive presence, and reach out to them today with a specific offer: a walk, a game, a ride, help carrying groceries.

How I Practiced Forgiveness When It Hurt the Most

After Maria Breaux’s brother David — known as “the Compassion Guy” in Davis, California, after 14 years of collecting definitions of compassion from strangers — was stabbed to death as he slept on a park bench, she discovered a message he had left her: “If I’m ever harmed or unable to speak for myself, forgive the perpetrator and help others forgive that person.” Sitting yards away from his killer in a courtroom, she found herself doing something that defied easy explanation: looking for the humanity in the young man who had taken her brother’s life, and finding it in shared immigrant roots, honors student transcripts, first-generation college attendance, and childhoods shaped by insecurity and trauma. What she discovered was not that forgiveness erases grief, but that it can coexist with it; that learning to “be at peace with the vulnerability inherent in human life,” as researcher Fred Luskin writes, is less a single act of will than a sustained, daily practice of listening, reflection, and honest reckoning with one’s own biases. As civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson reminds us, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done” — and Maria’s story suggests that holding that truth, even in the rawness of loss, may be one of the most demanding and quietly radical things a person can do.

Be The Change

Think of someone who has frustrated or hurt you. Spend a few minutes today finding one piece of their story you don’t know, such as a hardship they’ve carried or a pressure they’re under. You don’t have to change how you feel; perhaps just see if elements of their humanity might take up a little more space in your heart than before.

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Colorado Mayor Sleeps at Homeless Shelter Every Week

Mike Coffman, a U.S. military veteran who held many government offices, and is the current mayor of Aurora, Colorado, spent a week in homeless encampments to learn from the inhabitants. As mayor, he didn’t talk about it, or hire consultants to study it; he went to see and listen to people first hand. As “Homeless Mike,” he slept “covered with a tarp as temperatures dipped into the teens.” “His experience on the street led the mayor to help found the non-profit Advanced Pathways. The incentive-based program includes a 600-person transitional housing facility.” People can move from shelter, to transitional housing, to full-time jobs helping them “achieve the highest level of self-sufficiency they are capable of reaching.” The mayor continues to visit once a week, getting to know them while they get to know him, to openly talk about their challenges and future.

Be The Change

Be open to an opportunity to see and hear first-hand about a problem or situation in your community in order to better understand. Listen for a possibility to serve.

This Month’s DailyGood Digest

This month, DailyGood explored subtle yet profound shifts that guide our unfolding narratives.

Nic Askew invites us to the origin point of stories, encouraging a deeper understanding of storytelling’s evolutionary role. Leena Wilde Ryan offers solace to writers of a new story, urging them to find courage amid existential blocks. Christopher Lowman’s encounter with the two sides of grace unravels the unexpected paths that reshape destinies. Parker Palmer encourages us to view life with soft eyes, revealing the profound impact of our perceptions. From Uganda, the tale of a monk’s improbable life inspires with its seeds of spiritual teachings. Nguyễn Phương Lam’s contemplative insights express a new age for humanity, where purpose and love intertwine in the dance of transformation. Two brain researchers’ dialogue on dopamine challenges prevailing narratives, offering insights beyond biochemical limitations. A teenager’s heartfelt promise to just write one book sparks a journey of commitment and creativity. The Wisdom Collective paves critical pathways for global transformation, inviting collective action. Ruth Pittard narrates a love story that defies age as she becomes an octogenarian, and filmmaker Andrew Hinton shares the heart-expanding journey of a monk who creates a haven for ‘uninvited’ children, all weaving a tapestry of resilience and hope.

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The Man Who Uncovers Remarkable Forgotten Lives

Scrolling through videos on social media, one man was about to swipe past Simon Howard’s video of researching the history of the names on a random grave from 1934, when he realized, “It hit me: that’s exactly who I’ll be in a century. Just some random guy with his own ego, desires and goals, completely forgotten.” Simon Howard, whose work involves helping people trace their ancestral pasts, walks through overgrown sections of cemeteries, choosing graves at random, then goes home to reconstruct the lives buried beneath the stone. What he uncovers for George and Reginald Bailey — two brothers who died within days of each other in 1934 — is the kind of sorrow that history absorbs without a trace, unless someone goes looking. He decides to clear the weeds on the brothers’ overgrown grave and puts two small white flowers on the tombstone. “Rest in peace, Reginald and George. We will remember you.” Howard’s efforts are a quiet argument that every life contains a world worth knowing, and that the simple act of looking — really looking — is itself a form of love.

Be The Change

Today, find a photograph of someone from your family, or even a stranger in an old photo you’ve come across, and spend a few minutes simply wondering about their life: what they loved, what they feared, what an ordinary day felt like for them. Then, throughout the week, look at strangers you pass by with that same lens.