The Power of Little Things

I think most of us have felt powerless at some point in our lives, as

though nothing we do makes a difference. I think most of us have had the

thought, what can I do? I am just one person.

Many of us think that in order to make a difference we have to do a big

thing and that we either don’t have the resources to do so, or the skills, or

the wherewithal.

There’s a proverb in Swahili that says, "Haba na haba . . . Hujaza

Kibaba.” Drop by drop . . . the bucket fills. This proverb reminds us that,

no matter how small, every drop counts in the filling of a bucket.

There’s a story I heard a long time ago about a woman who was very

sad. I don’t remember quite why - she lived alone, and it might have been

that she had lost her husband or family, but whatever the reason, no one

had been able to cheer her up and her friends had stopped coming around.

And because she was depressed, her house and property had fallen

into disarray. Dirt and grime covered everything, weeds choked the garden

and poked through her pathways. But her sadness sapped her energy, and

she just didn’t care anymore.

One morning, when she opened the front door of her cottage to bring in

the bottle of milk that the milkman left for her every few days, she saw lying

on her dusty, dirty door mat a beautiful red rose. She glanced around to see

who might have left it, and seeing no one, she picked it up and brought it

inside.

It was so lovely that something inside of her stirred, and she decided to

put it in a vase. She went to the kitchen and opened the cupboard where

she kept her flower vases and pulled one out.

It was filthy.

So, she washed it, then filled it with water and put it on the kitchen table.

For some reason, it didn’t seem like the right place, so she wandered down

her hallway and decided that the small table in the hall with the mirror on

the wall behind it would be just the place. The mirror would show the

reflection of the rose.

But… the hall table was covered with dust and grime and old magazines

and other litter, and the mirror was so dirty, no reflection could possibly be

seen. So, she retrieved some rags, glass cleaner and wood polish and

cleaned the hall table and the mirror behind it and threw the trash away.

And the rose looked so beautiful there.

But the light was a bit dim in the hallway, so she found her step ladder

and cleaned the glass of the hall light until it shone… and the light was now

so bright that she could see that the hall carpet was very dirty. So, she took

the carpet outside and beat the dust out of it, and swept her hallway and

mopped it until it was bright and shiny, and oh my did the rose look so

beautiful now!

But the walls - eeek! - they were kind of brown, and so she scrubbed

them clean and that led to cleaning the coat rack by the door, sweeping the

front stoop, opening up some windows and cleaning them….

And in this way, one thing at a time, she cleaned and restored her home

until everything shone and her heart became full again. She baked a cake

and took it to her neighbor’s house, restored her friendships and

rediscovered the joy of living. All from a single rose.

The gift of that rose was a drop.

While we might think that this story is an oversimplification, I have heard

and read true stories where the smallest gesture of kindness made a huge

difference in someone’s life. A smile that changed someone’s day. A

question that allowed a cashier to be seen and feel cared for. A ride that

allowed someone to make it in time for a job interview.

I’ve also experienced them. When I was in junior college, a woman in

one of my classes, who I barely knew - we’d been assigned the same group

in some class discussions - asked if she could gift me an experience. I

agreed, and to my surprise she took me to her hair salon, where a man who

cut hair for models was taking a break from the hectic pressure of that life.

He kept evening appointments for a few of his favorite clients, of which

she was one, and I, as her guest, was his client for that evening. He gave

me a haircut - it was one of a simple cut, nothing dramatic, but the kind so

that when you are turned around in the chair to face the mirror, you wonder

who you’re looking at.

That haircut changed my whole outlook. It planted a tiny seed of

possibility in me. Such a small thing. Some scissors and skill, the kindness

of that woman.

Now we could say that this gift was due to the state of my hair at the

time, but she later told me that she saw underneath my introverted exterior,

a diamond, and that her gift was intended to help me begin to see the

same.

Her gift to me was a drop.

Sometimes we’re so busy thinking we’re too small to do anything

substantial that we forget how powerful a small thing can be and how much

of a difference it can make.

A friend of mine told me how she was on a coffee run for the crew at her

job and on her way to the coffee shop, she found a $100 bill on the ground.

Nice, right? And then when she arrived at the coffee shop there was a man outside, likely un-homed, who didn’t ask her for money, but asked her if she would

buy him a cup of coffee. She stopped, looked at him, and inspired, said that

no she wouldn’t. And then she handed him the $100 bill and said, “But how

about you buy yourself a cup of coffee?”

I can’t help but think that her lovely gesture helped him to feel an

abundance he likely hadn’t felt in some time, for his response to her

generosity was not to covet the money and disappear, it was, “May I buy

you a cup of coffee, then?”

This was a drop.

And we have no idea how this simple act of generosity rippled out into

the world.

I share these stories with you as examples of the power of little things. It

often doesn’t take much - a smile, a compliment, a statement of belief in

another person’s abilities to make a huge impact on someone else’s day,

week or life. We think we don’t make a difference, we think we don’t matter,

but we do.

At the close of every Unity of San Antonio service, we end with the

reminder that each of us matters. That what we do, how we live, what we

say - makes a difference.

But sometimes we don’t feel that way, do we? Sometimes we feel too

tired, too discouraged, too overwhelmed by events in our lives… and we

just think, I’m only one person. Does my smile really make a difference?

Does my small act of kindness really make a difference?

You know, it’s all the little things that truly make or break a relationship -

the little transgressions and the little acts of kindness and love repeated

again and again that make a difference. The strongest relationships are

built from little things that build trust and safety over time.

So yes. What we do does make a difference. And it’s a difference that

ripples out into the wide world. And the more present we become, the more

conscious and intentional we become, the more that we can intentionally

affect both ourselves and the world in positive ways.

I had someone walk up to me on the street, someone I had met only

briefly months prior, and she said, “What you told me changed my life.” I

had no memory of what I had said, but clearly it had made a huge impact

on her life.

I’m sure most of us can look back and remember small things, both kind

and unkind, that made a huge impact on us. Some of which we might carry

around still to this day.

Each one a drop.