Why the Small Things You Do Today Might Matter More Than You Think
· Leadership
Most of us carry a tree in our minds — a vision of the work we want to do, the impact we hope to make. But most days feel like painting leaves. What if those leaves are the work?
When Stories Collide
I love it when moments of collision happen. You know the kind — two completely unrelated experiences suddenly intersect in a way that makes you pause and think, Okay… maybe there's something here I'm supposed to notice.
One of those moments happened this weekend.
I was in the city having dinner with family. It was one of those evenings where nobody is in a hurry and the conversation moves easily from one story to the next. Somewhere between catching up and sharing laughs, my niece looked across the table and asked a simple question.
"Have you ever read Leaf by Niggle?" I started laughing.
Because earlier that week someone had mentioned the story to me for the very first time. Curious, I had looked it up and read the short essay one evening. It's only a few pages long. You can read it in one sitting.
But when I finished it, I didn't immediately move on. I just sat there for a while. Because even though the story is simple, something about it stayed with me. And now here it was again — showing up at the dinner table just days later.
So we started talking about it. And the more we talked, the more I realized this small story might actually be saying something very big about life, leadership, and the work we spend our days doing.
The Vision We Carry
The story centers on a man named Niggle. Niggle is a painter. Not a famous one. Not particularly successful. Just a quiet man who loves to paint and carries a vision in his mind he cannot quite let go of.
That vision is a tree.
Not just any tree, but a magnificent one. Branches stretching wide and far. Thousands of leaves shimmering in the light, each one unique, each one alive with detail. It is the kind of vision many of us carry in our own way. The life we hope to build. The work we hope will matter. The difference we hope to make. Niggle wants to paint the entire tree.
But life keeps interrupting him.
The Leaves We Actually Paint
Niggle has a neighbor named Mr. Parish. Parish has a bad leg and frequently needs help — fixing something around the house, running an errand, solving a small problem that appears at the worst possible moment.
And almost every time Niggle sits down to paint, there is a knock at the door. What Tolkien captures beautifully is Niggle's honesty. He does not always respond with joy. Sometimes he grumbles. Sometimes he complains. Sometimes he wishes Parish would simply leave him alone so he could get back to the painting.
But he helps.
And when he returns to his canvas, instead of painting the entire tree, he paints a single leaf. He studies it carefully — the shape, the veins, the way light catches on the edges, even the dew resting along its surface. Leaf by leaf he works. Yet the full tree, the masterpiece he carries in his imagination, never seems to get finished.
The Journey We All Know Is Coming
Throughout the story there is another presence quietly waiting in the background. A journey. Niggle knows it is coming. Tolkien does not hide what the journey represents.
It is death.
Niggle knows that one day he must leave everything behind. Just like every one of us knows, at some level, that our own journey will come. But like most of us, Niggle does not want to think about it too much. One of the great graces of being human is that we do not walk around thinking about death every moment of the day. If we did, it might paralyze us.
Instead we are given the gift of living our lives — doing our work, helping others, building things, caring for people. And eventually the day comes. Niggle must leave. When he goes, the painting remains unfinished. Just fragments of the dream he hoped to complete.
The Tree Waiting on the Other Side
What happens next is what makes the story unforgettable. After his journey, Niggle finds himself in a place that feels unfamiliar at first. But as he begins to explore, he sees something in the distance. As he walks closer, he realizes what he is looking at.
It is the tree. Not the painting.
The real tree.
Alive, towering, complete. Every branch, every leaf exactly as he had imagined it. Even the parts he never had time to finish. The work he believed was incomplete had somehow become whole.
The Ending Most People Miss
But Tolkien does something even more interesting. He returns the story to Niggle's old world.
After Niggle is gone, people eventually discover his painting. Most of it is used for practical repairs — patching things up, fixing things around the town.
One small fragment of the painting remains: a single leaf. Someone notices it.
The leaf is beautiful enough that it is framed and placed in a museum for a while. But eventually even that is forgotten. The museum burns down. And Niggle's work disappears from the world almost entirely.
In other words, Niggle does not become famous. His work does not change the art world. His name does not live on forever. And Tolkien lets the reader process that.
What Tolkien Was Sharing
Tolkien later wrote that Leaf by Niggle reflected his own fears as a writer — that he might never finish his life's work. But the story reveals something deeper. Niggle believed the interruptions in his life were preventing him from finishing his work.
Yet those interruptions, helping his neighbor, responding to ordinary needs, serving someone else, were part of the masterpiece all along. His kindness mattered. His leaves mattered. Even if the world barely noticed.
The tree was growing anyway.
Leadership Happens One Leaf at a Time
The more I think about this story, the more it feels like a mirror for modern life. Most of us carry a tree in our minds.