this is "nightline." >> tonight, return to paradise. the town wiped off the map. >> we're all in the same boat. we can't help each other because we can barely survive ourselves. >> the deadliest and most destructive wildfire ever in california. >> we're trying to have a christmas in any way, shape, or form we can. >> families finding hope and he> pl meditation resolution. den harris hits the road in search of a more centered life in the fast lane. >> i i'm no busy. >> exploring challenges. a pitch for inner peace in the new year.

first, the "nightline" five.

good evening. thank you for joining us. home for the holidays is a frequent refrain this time of year. for one california community, it's simply impossible after the most destructive wildfire in

that state's history. as we found out, home is also where the heart is. >> reporter: for nicole and her daughter, the gift of christmas this year comes with a reminder of what they've lost. >> we're trying to have a christmas. you know? any way, shape, or form that we can. it's just everyone doing the best they can, trying to give your kids whatever you can to help them feel normal. >> reporter: like so many in northern california, nicole and her family could not spend the holiday inside their house. nicole and her father jim have been forced to spend much of the holidays in gjim's new rv. >> i came into the world with nothing, i'll leave with nothing. inbetween it's what i can do to help other people with. i'm set. >> reporter: nicole and her family, three of roughly 50,000 people in the county displaced by the most destructive pfeiffer

in california's history. this box holding all that's left of their family mo men tos. >> more than anything i could ever explain. it's the only thing i'll ever be able to give her. it means the world to be able to pass that stuff down. >> reporter: their rv now one of several camped out in this lowe's parking lot in chico, california. the fire ignited. you can see flames shooting out of the roof. this tree, flames hundreds of feet into the air. this community is burned to the ground. pushed by 50 miles per hour winds, homes, businesses, and dozens of residents in the area stood no chance. ultimately the fire burned for 17 days. scorched more than 153,000 acres and killed at least 86 people. the town of paradise, california hit the hardt.he fire

essentially wiped paradise off the map. this shopping center is gone. block after block is filled with devastation. it will take years to rebuild. >> the fire spread so quickly the terrifying elements caught many by surprised. families desperate to get to safety and forced to drive through blinding smoke and fierce flames. we first met nicole days after the fire ripped through paradise. >> i called my husband. i said i don't think i'm going to make it out of this. it's coming in too fast. i thought i was going to die right there. >> reporter: her narrow escape, a harrowing tale. >> i couldn't breathe the air was burning my lungs. you couldn't see anything. the back of my pants were on fire. two firemen picked me up, extinguished my pants, put a fire blanket over me. >> reporter: that was the first thing you said to your husband? >> i'm alive. i'm here. i love you.

>> reporter: returning to her childhood home earlier this month. >> this is my home. so sad. >> reporter: what were you able to get out with? >> the clothes on my back. i'm happy that i got out with m been especially heard. >> we had thanksgiving in this house. this was the glue to our family, was this house. >> reporter: where did you guys celebrate thanksgiving this year? >> we didn't have thanksgiving. we couldn't fit it in our oven. >> reporter: her home one of 14,000 burned in the fire. she plans to rebuild but in a community of ash and rubble, that's a distant goal. until then the surrounding housing market is dire. >> the fire is out. now we're dealing with the crisis of not enough housing. >> reporter: the executive director of the housing authority. 14% of the homes in the county were decimated by the fire. exacerbating the already high demand for homes in california. >> there really is no housing

availability locally. >> reporter: for those who lost everything but had the means to move forward, price gouging is the norm. >> landlords proposed rent increases. >> reporter: that means affordable housing for the elderly and the poor is difficult to come by. among their options, a shelter or transitional housing. >> there's no other place for them to go. there's no other place in california with affordable rent and proximity to services. this is a difficult issue. >> reporter: there are temporary trailers on stand by ready to deliver. almost two months after the fire broke out, finding space for the trailers is proving a problem on the local level. >> not everyone wants toffee ma home complex behind their house. >> reporter: without basic infrastructure up and running, residents have been cautioned against moving trailers onto their properties which macon stain toxic ash.

even worse, not everyone is qualifying for federal help. >> it's a confusing process. we're here to partner with the state and county to assist you in a >> reporter: another issue, employment. the hospital where nicole jolly worked now closed after suffering extensive damage. >> i'm not able to work. the hospital is going to rebuild, they said. but it's going to be at least a year if not two before they are up and moving again. i'm looking for work, but so are 300 other nurses. >> reporter: she spent her last moments at the hospital racing patients to safety as flames surrounded the property. >> we put tape on the doors when we knew that room was evacuated, we shut the door so nobody went in there. we got the whole hospital out. >> reporter: now like thousands

of others she has a go fund me page, but her instinct is to help those who once called this wasteland paradise. >> i want to help every one of them, and i know they want to help me. it's hard. we're all on the same page and the same boat. we can't help each other because we can barely survive ourselves. >> reporter: the pleas for help heard by many. the spirit of liberty foundation flew up with santa to deliver gifts. for some at the silver dollar fairgrounds turned red cross shelter, the kindness of strangers overwhelming. children remember even for a moment the joy of christmas. >> i got a snake and named him spot. >> i got a monkey. >> the guys donating this stuff, it's awesome. >> reporter: families also celebrating the future, this couple getting engaged on the steps in front of where their home used to stand.

this family experiencing a christmas miracle of their own. jim drove back to where his house once stood. he found his cat rusty. a joyous reunion amid the rubble. >> merry christmas, mira. >> reporter: i'm will carr in paradise, california for "nightline." >> our thanks to will. next, we're crisscrossing the country on a mission to meditate. my name is elaine barber, and i'm a five-year cancer survivor. surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives. at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now.

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now to a cross country trip with the goal of helping americans improve their lives through meditation. sounds like a good new year's resolution. here's a look at dan harris in search of serenity now. >> reporter: this is ridiculous. this is my meditation chair yacht. -- chariot. gassed up for a guest to find out what's stopping want to be med d meditators from adopting this simple thing. i'm joined my jeff warren, a guy i call meditation mcgaver. i'm hoping even though he's canadian, he can work some magic on america and me along the way. our first stop, my workplace, abc news.

>> have you ever gone across the country on a bus before? >> reporter: no. parts of it, but never the whole thing. this is where my personal adventures with meditation began 13 years ago. >> we're going to go to dan harris at the news desk. >> reporter: with a panic attack live on good morning america. >> to prescribe statins slowly for cancer production. >> reporter: that on air meltdown helped me to embrace a practice i always thought was both ridiculous and impossible for somebody like me with the attention span of a six-month-old golden retriever. our first test subjects, my good morning america co-anchors. >> we're rolling. >> reporter: see what i mean? >> i cannot sit still. >> neither can i. >> reporter: paula ferris is the perfect person. i can't meditate because my mind

won't stop wandering. >> you can shift, won't you? >> my back hurts. >> reporter: mind wandering is natural and inevitable. getting distracted and starting again is the whole game. brain scans of meditators show healthy changes in the regions associated with focus. >> i travel with an an an an a >> reporter: we come to elvis duran. he's known for rubbing elbows with celebrities. >> dan is going to go to the other room and have conversations with you guys trying to find out who is meditating and who isn't yrmind. and you need help. it's like every morning i listen to the show, it's a cry for help. when we sit down with elvis's co-host, bethany, we encounter

the second big myth that stops people from meditating. i don't have time for this. >> i am so busy every single day. i mean, tomorrow i'm pulling a 16-hour day. and i wake up at 4:00. then when you come home and you're exhausted, where do you find the time to sit for five minutes? >> you're the kind of ideal person who needs to be able to find what it means to have a kind of more metaform of attention when you're in the middle of the busyness. >> reporter: even a minute of meditation counts. you can start with that and build from there. the next few days will take us south. we'll meet young military cadets who look cooler meditating than i do. >> it changed my evenings and how i felt with myself with the voices and i felt like the narrative that was constantly going through my head or trying to formulate faded away. i was more present in myself. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: we'll set up a meditation booth on the streets of new orleans.

and then we'll head west to new mexico. this is a long drive. let me give you background about why i'm doing this. after i discovered meditation, i wrote a book about it called 10% happier which turned into an app. also called 10 % happier. for this one, we're keeping it real. where i brought any favorite teachers together to provide short, entertaining and practical meditation lessons. >> where's your attention right now? >> self-conscious. >> working on the app i realized many people struggle to establish a regular habit. this road trip is about figuring out how to tackle the obstacles. lessons jeff and i lay out in our new book called "meditation for digitty skeptics". the employees of ait which serves low income children with developmental delays give voice to the next myth. meditation is self-indulgent. >> i feel like taking the five minutes, i feel guilty. i could have been planning for

therapy. i could have been coming up with more things to do with my baby. i could have given my husband five minutes about chatting about his things. guilt has been any biggest barrier. >> reporter: the answer to this myth is simple. if you don't take care of yourself, you can't help other people. >> reporter: day nine of the road trip. we're in the back of a squad car in arizona piloted by sergeant rauj johnson. >> i go on the calls that involve more risk. >> reporter: if you think people think that you're meditating and you're going to go soft? >> absolutely. to bring in meditation and be like what's going on? what are we doing? >> reporter: sergeant johnson is thinking if i get too happy, i'll lose my edge. his concerns are answered the very next day by his own colleagues who say meditation has made them more effective.

>> you enter the stream of the conversation. >> reporter: there's a lot of tension between the police and the community all over the country. i don't think meditation is a cure all for anything, but do you think this could be a useful tool in the tool bag for dealing with what is a tense situation? >> i'm 52. i'm about 110 pounds. i'm a tiny officer. when i show up to scenes, it's essential i'm calm. i find myself since i've been meditating recently, that my performance is a lot better. a lot of times in our culture people don't want to talk to you. i have to be in the right mind set to be able to calm down the situation and have the people trust me and be able to know that i'll be able to help them. >> we don't have anything to teach you guys. >> reporter: in los angeles, on the final day of our tour, we get a visceral sense of the impact meditation can have in an individual life. >> there's a million other things you could be doing. no, making that choice.

it's like strength of mind. >> reporter: we're at the office of a nonprofit that teaches creative writing to formerly incarcerated youth. >> does everyone have something to write about? >> everybody writes. >> reporter: we do writing and hear an emotional reading from candace price who has lived through childhood abuse and incarceration. >> i haven't had a family member, like, for the past 13 years that actually loved me. my dad just got out of jail for doing 25 years. and i don't know how to love him. i'm confused on how to love him. >> i heard you judging yourself and saying hey, you're supposed to open up to him more. you're not supposed to treat him like that. that's okay. remind yourself that's what you are. and that you are supportive and that you are love. you are a part of him. and you are welcoming him. >> reporter: shortly after the shoot, candace reaches out to say both she and her father are

now meditating and getting a lot out of it. a fitting and moving ending to an 11-day 18-state road trip with the goal of helping americans adopt a simple practice that can make all of us at least 10% happier. for "nightline," this is dan harris all over america. the paper back of meditation for fidgety skeptics is out on tuesday. you can prescribe to dan's 10% happier podcast also. ♪ she's doing it again no cover up spray here... it's the irresistibly fresh scent of febreze air effects. cheaper aerosols can cover up odors, burying the smell in a flowery fog. switch to febreze air effects! febreze eliminates even the toughest odors from the air.

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mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. a preview of an upcoming abc news special. >> it was a fundamental attack on a man's manhood. >> i was crying. i said i don't want to have sex. i pick up the knife. i cut >> she goes -- >> she came off as the sweet little girl, a sweet little innocent girl who doesn't cut a man's penis off.

>> it's quite a story. >> i want people to understand the whole story. it was a coverup. >> the bobbitts, love hurts. a 20 /20 event on abc. >> and that's "nightline" for this evening. when you can't stay up with us, you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. thanks for the company, america. good night.