The American poet Emily Dickinson said, “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.” The words seem timid in a time that urges big ideas, big conglomerates and policies that are applied with a broad brush on a global canvas.
Individual acts can grow into movements. Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistan’s award-winning social worker, would be seen trundling a wheelbarrow through markets collecting funds for healthcare, Rs 10 at a time, or standing with arms outstretched for donations in the middle of the traffic. The Edhi Foundation singlehandedly gave hope to a whole generation and established a methodology that others now emulate.
A.K. Khan, a horticulturist from Allahabad who migrated to Karachi, not only transformed a dusty city into a green oasis, but introduced the concept of landscaping domestic gardens in the city, establishing it as a profession for others to follow.
Societies focus on human achievements, seeing nature only as a space to occupy and a resource to support human needs. But nature is a blueprint for resilience, adaptation, resource management and regeneration. Its design complexity is not a crowded cacophonous mess like human society, but one of exquisite beauty and perfect harmony.
Contrary to what many think, lasting change does not come from grand policies or sweeping revolutions, but instead from sustained, everyday acts of care
A single bee can pollinate 5,000 flowers daily. Bees pollinate around 75 percent of major food crops. Less than four percent of termites in the world actually infest homes, but nitrogen-enriching termite in farm soil can increase crop yield by 300 percent. This is the way of nature, what meteorologist Edward Lorenz called “the Butterfly Effect.”
Biologist Janine Beynus, who promotes biomimicry, makes an insightful observation about nature: “Year after year, things get better and better just by staying there.” Yet people, rather than making incremental changes for improvement, abandon a village to move to the city, move from one part of a city to a better area or migrate to what is viewed as a ‘better’ country.
In nature, a single shrub in a desert sustains an ecology not dissimilar to a dedicated teacher in a remote school who nurtures and inspires students. Many of Pakistan’s well-known artists were first introduced to art by Lal Mohammad Pathan, an art teacher in Mirpurkhas.
Some individual acts may not be visible to others but can be transformative. Saving an injured bird can awaken a lifelong commitment to compassion and personal responsibility. Conversely, a child beaten by a parent is more likely to become a bully or a criminal. Small acts can affect the direction of big changes. The Fixit team of Karachi recently replaced missing drain covers in a symbolic gesture after a young child tragically lost his life after falling into an open manhole.
In 2019, Numaish-Karachi’s Scheherazade project took a group of designers and artists to Lahore’s inner city to reactivate the courtyard of the Wazir Khan mosque and four adjacent streets. Since then, 50 more streets have been improved by local residents. By raising personal standards, we learn to judge others by the standards they maintain, rather than the power they wield.
Economist E. F. Schumacher’s 1973 publication Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, based on his study of village-based economics, was ahead of its time. However, as the nation state, a European export, becomes obsolete in a post-national age, perhaps there will be a return to self-governing city states, since 80 percent of the world population is projected to be living in cities by 2080.
In this time of turmoil and helplessness, it is important to remind oneself that there is no act too small to affect change. The biotechnologist Svetlana Poligenis reminds us that, when things seem to fall apart, “the future quietly rearranges itself.”
The Sufi Bayazid said that, as a young revolutionary, his prayer to God was to give him the energy to change the world. As he realised that half his life was gone without changing a single soul, he asked for the grace to change all those whom he came in contact with. In his old age, as his days were numbered, he asked for the grace to change himself: “If I had prayed for this right from the start, I should not have wasted my life.”
Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.
She may be reached at
durriyakazi1918@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, EOS, January 4th, 2026
