Sangha of Auspicious Companions

The Call Is Real

Emanuel Kuntzelman has a special relationship with trees. Sitting in an apple tree at the early age of six, he decided to dedicate his life to serving the universe. Under an oak in college, he formulated an idea to unite people in a common purpose. Reading under a weeping willow, the name Holomovement came to him for that common purpose, a movement he later helped realize. People also appeared along the way as if on cue to point him in a direction when he didn’t know which way he was going. “Sometimes the universe makes things so easy for us — if you’re on that quest for truth, and you’re willing to say it here and there.” Emanuel believes each person has a calling, a purpose, and trees and people are there to help us as long as we keep learning and seeking. In doing so, all can join in the Holomovement “to unite humanity through our collective purpose.”

Be The Change

Remind yourself of your calling in life. Perhaps, sit with a tree and listen; be loyal; stick to it.

He Wanted Kids to Understand Cancer. So He Turned It Into a Game

When Daniel Zhang was nine, he watched his grandmother lose her hair to chemotherapy and couldn’t understand why medicine could look so much like harm. That confusion never left him, and when his grandfather was later diagnosed with cancer — and Zhang saw the same bewilderment on his seven-year-old sister’s face — it became the seed of something purposeful. He and his classmate Zachary Tou, both 17, built *Tumor Tactics*, a Pokémon-inspired card game that teaches children cancer biology through the same mechanics they already love — where, as Zhang explains, “chemotherapy can be a really powerful treatment, but you have to roll a die to determine how effective it is, and you might have to skip your next turn to recover from its side effects.” What began as one boy trying to translate grief into language a child could hold has grown into a student-led nonprofit running workshops across San Diego schools, reaching kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. Perhaps most quietly remarkable is what happens at the end of each session: Zhang and Tou open the floor for discussion, and children — unbidden — begin sharing their own family stories, needing not just explanation, but the invitation to be heard.

Be The Change

Think of someone who may be quietly carrying a confusing or frightening experience that they don’t have words for yet. Today, ask them what’s been on their mind and simply offer your listening presence. Or, if words are too much, find a simple game to play with them.

Unsubscribe from this email

Wildflowers

A grieving widower, still holding his loss from the day before, drove to a stranger’s flower stand because his wife had asked to have her ashes scattered with wildflowers — and he didn’t know where else to look. What he found were a few hand-cut stems of Sweet William, tended by a Kristen Freeland and her daughters who had no idea what that ordinary summer afternoon meant to someone else. “What felt like an ordinary summer afternoon in our front yard was one of the hardest days of someone else’s life,” Freeland observed. A few simple blooms offered freely, without expectation or knowledge of its destination, became part of a sacred goodbye.

Be The Change

Today, create something small and freely available — a bouquet of backyard flowers, a jar of homemade jam, a simple gratitude note — and leave it somewhere a neighbor might find it, with no explanation needed.

This Week’s DailyGood Digest

Reflecting on this week’s inspirations, we are drawn into a tapestry of stories woven with hope and courage.

We explored the deep wisdom of our interconnectedness through recent findings of how coral can heal its twin. In Australia, an unassuming yet famous basketball player drove two hours out of her way to help a stranger assemble a vacuum, illustrating the simple yet profound power of compassion. In a dawn swim, a grieving mother dove into the ocean with hope, held with care by an accidental community that formed post-pandemic. In New York City, students transformed school lunch, igniting change through their courage to imagine a better possibility and take action. In another corner of the US, a group of Cherokee girls aged 10-17 set out to protect a salamander and ended up making legal history to protect a sacred river. A teen in California dove into the neuroscience of how emotions give memories their staying power an exploration that turned into an award-winning podcast. Across the globe, in Melbourne, one woman’s journey of tuning into her inner voice led her to win silver in the World Dwarf Games and finally realize she’s been sporty all along. Finally, in Berlin, thousands of strangers voluntarily water street trees, reminding us of the strength found in community and care.

Join The Community

If you enjoy good news stories and want to help change the media landscape, join our volunteer team to curate, edit, spread the good! Login and get started.

A Childhood Bike Crash Led to a Stranger’s Gift, and a Hidden Message

Ten years after a childhood bike crash, Rika Matsuda unfolded an origami crane a stranger who witnessed the crash had given her and found a message written inside — a Japanese expression meaning “cherish the moment,” or more fully, that we should treasure each encounter because it may never come again. The man had slipped the words in quietly, without drawing attention to them, letting them wait until she was ready. What the story reveals is something almost too simple to name: that a caring stranger’s gentleness, offered in a few unhurried minutes at a water fountain, can fold itself into a life and stay there. “He didn’t say anything,” Matsuda recalled. “He just smiled and handed me the origami crane.”

Be The Change

Today, allow yourself to notice the preciousness of a particular moment. Cherish crossing paths with another person or the energy that another form of life brings into your day. Notice if this particular practice of attention affects your mood, day, or way of seeing or being.

Meet the Retirees Turning Their Farms Into Wildlife Corridors

What if retirement offered an opportunity to give something back to the natural world? In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, two retired neighbors, John Rice and John Sessler, are doing just that, transforming their farmland into thriving habitats for wildlife. Working alongside Smithsonian conservation scientists, they’ve helped protect nearly 2,500 acres of private land, creating corridors where animals can move, find food, and flourish. Their days are spent removing invasive plants, restoring native wildflowers, and watching the landscape slowly come back to life. What began as a personal love of nature has become something much larger: a living legacy of conservation, nurtured through patience, dedication, and the simple joy of caring for the land.

Be The Change

Take a walk outside today and notice the life around you — the birds, wildflowers, trees, or even a patch of green growing between the cracks. Consider one small way you might help nature flourish, whether planting something native, leaving a little space for wildlife, or simply allowing a corner of your garden to grow wild. Sometimes caring for the earth begins with noticing what is already there.

The Coral That Heals

A bleached coral, stripped of its color and slowly starving, can come back to life in just seven weeks — if it is placed in contact with a healthy twin. Researchers at Stanford University recently discovered that when genetically identical coral fragments touch, their tissues fuse into what scientist Danny Collins calls “a nutrient highway,” and within as little as 36 hours, life-giving algae begin flowing from the healthy fragment into the dying one. The discovery began with a happy accident: a healthy coral slipped against a bleached one in a tank, and someone was paying close enough attention to notice what happened next. The finding won’t save coral reefs overnight — the technique only works between genetic clones, and the ocean keeps warming, which causes coral to bleach. But the findings do open a door. Collins and his team are now exploring whether the algae themselves can be extracted and introduced to bleached corals at scale, without needing the physical bridge at all. While he is clear-eyed about the limits: the real solution is being able to stop coral bleaching in the first place, the horizons feel brighter: “bleached corals aren’t a lost cause,” he offers.

Be The Change

Offer life in a small way to another form of life. Water a plant that looks parched, offer someone food with extra care, or simply do an act that regenerates your energy and notice how that affects those around you.

The Basketballer Who Assembled a Stranger’s Vacuum

When a 94-year-old woman in Melbourne discovered that the new vacuum cleaner she wanted was sold out, she faced a disappointing trip home. But a stranger standing nearby overheard her predicament and quietly offered to drive two hours to another store, collect the vacuum, and deliver it to her door. The stranger even assembled it for her, and the two later shared coffee. Only afterward did the woman learn that her unexpected helper was Michele Timms, a highly celebrated professional basketball player and coach. Yet it wasn’t her fame that made the encounter extraordinary. It was the simple kindness of someone who saw a human being facing a dead-end and tapped into her capacity to widen the road for her.

Be The Change

The next time you notice someone struggling with a small, everyday challenge, consider how you might lighten their load. Sometimes the simplest gesture, offered without being asked, can make a lasting difference in someone’s day.