“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a sparrow asked a wild dove.
“Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer.
“In that case I must tell a marvelous story,” the sparrow said. “I sat on a branch of a fir tree, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not a giant blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch – nothing more than nothing, as you say – the branch broke off.”
Having said that, the sparrow flew away. The dove thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself:
“Perhaps there is only one voice lacking for peace to come in our world.”
Whenever you think your contributions, acts of charity, work for justice, gifts of love, or your talents are nothing, or are small in comparison to those of others, remember that when one is added to another, and then to another, great things can happen—from “nothing more than nothing.”

A friend shared this parable with me and I’ve been thinking about it, thinking about influence and critical mass and the weight of goodness. It encourages me to think that every little bit of good we can muster is worth every effort. You just never know when the bow will break. Let it be for goodness.