Just a drop in the bucket

This winter, I was thinking about the farm and how it fits with our vision of justice. At times, farming this little piece of land can feel inconsequential and a huge time sink. A micro-farm in a land of agri-businesses, processed food, and the need to feed millions of people. It seems like a drop in the bucket.  

I ruminated on that notion – “just a drop in the bucket.” It is an expression we use to belittle action: “it is really nothing, or not much, and won’t make a difference.” At this same moment, when I was questioning if Anne and I were making a difference, I was also tapping trees. 

The trees are at the north end of the farm, by the parking area. Every day or two, I would trudge out the back door, through the snow and empty the pails under the taps into a 5-gallon bucket, and trudge back to the house. Some days I needed two five-gallon buckets. As I put the pails back on the trees, I would hear “plunk”. 

A drop of sap hits the bottom of the pail. “Plunk”

Just a drop in the bucket. 

Those drops added up to gallons.  Forty-five gallons. Early spring, as I pruned the fruit trees, I managed to boil down that sap to make some pretty sweet maple syrup.

Now, when I pull up the seemingly endless sprouts of bindweed, I think “plunk”. Or when someone stumbles upon the farm stand for the first time, “plunk”.  When I rush to a protest or rally, even for a few moments, “plunk”. Organize that 17-Neighborhood bike ride, “plunk”. And when I harvest lettuce, scallions, or fennel and leave the roots in the dirt to help regenerate the soil, “plunk”.

Farming has a way of teaching you things you didn’t know you needed to learn. A drop in the bucket can be consequential. Farming flipped the meaning of the expression on its head. Drops add up. Little acts of kindness can add up. One act of resistance to injustice matters.

We don’t have to feed the world to make a difference,  just some of our neighbors. We can’t heal the soil all over the globe, but we can do it right here. .And each small act that supports justice, equity or democracy helps build the future we want to create.

And there are a whole bunch of people like us, doing something similar, trying to make a difference in their little corner of the world,  farm responsibly,  feeding their neighbors, and seeking justice where they are. 

Change happens little by little, drop by drop, and then seemingly all at once.

Next time someone tells me what I’m doing is “just a drop in the bucket”, I'm going to smile and say, “yes it is.”