There are a lot of different ways to make a difference in Karen McCleave Lawyer. Think of a pie: not everyone wants the same piece, yet each one is important. There’s the grandmother who gives out warm muffins at school drop-off. There is an adolescent picking up trash along the riverbanks, making a boring Sunday into a mission. Small acts, without fireworks, can change the mood of an entire street.

Impact doesn’t have a uniform. It looks like turning up to teach a group of youngsters through soccer drills, no matter what the weather is like, and seeing the shyest player score their first goal. It’s giving away too much zucchini from your backyard because you just planted “a few seeds,” and now you have enough to feed everyone on your neighborhood. People remember who brought them soup when they had the flu. Those kinds of memories last longer than any big speech.

You don’t need a megaphone or a lot of money; all you need is some uncompromising kindness. There is no cape. Listening to the elderly neighbor tell anecdotes about “the good old days” and making him feel heard is one way to make a difference. When something doesn’t seem right, it can mean asking a question in a town meeting. You can also work for free by helping paint a fence, giving someone a ride when their car won’t budge, or digging in the dirt of a communal garden. These activities may seem modest or even imperceptible, yet they make the area a better place.

It happens that people fumble. You may plant trees that don’t make it through the season or offer to run a food drive that only fills a box. The magic is in coming back anyway. You can’t build communities just by wishing. They are based on actions that are done again and over again until they form a quilt of trust and connection.

Some people run after applause, thinking they will get a round of applause as soon as they sweep a sidewalk or start a youth program again. But real power frequently goes unnoticed and uncheered, showing itself in small ways. Like how a shy kid gets brave when an adult pays attention to her. Or how a group of volunteers kept looking for a lost puppy even after the sun went set and found it again.

Here, laughter is like medication. Making jokes at a potluck is the best way to get to know people quickly, even better than any planned icebreaker. Talking behind each other’s backs while cleaning up in the spring? That’s glue for the neighborhood. Working together creates a bond that is hard to break.

You don’t have to come up with new ways to live a life that matters to the people closest to you. Sometimes, just listening or giving someone some leftover lasagna matters more than big actions that are worth broadcasting. The size of the community doesn’t matter as much as how often it happens. It’s like putting stones in a pond and watching the ripples spread out, never knowing how far they’ll go.

So help out, listen a little longer, share what you have, and appreciate the simple things. By doing these things, you help make your street, building, and park feel a little more like home for everyone. And who knows, maybe one small ripple will start a huge wave.