Last week, I was awed by a video, that unfortunately has now been deleted, showing Vincent Van Gogh’s work, exhibited in 3D at the Amsterdam Light Festival. In 2015, Sotheby’s sold his lovely post-Impressionist landscape at right, L’Allée des Alyscamps, for $66.3, yet ironically, during his lifetime, Van Gogh was seen as a madman and a failure.

For most of us, unless we are wealthy and can see the schools, hospitals and museums we’ve built, or endowments we’ve funded, it’s hard to recognize our legacy. I suspect even most artists don’t recognize the importance of their work in making social commentary or touching and influencing lives…which is what legacy is truly about.

Over a chai, my friend Elaine and I talked about legacy. Elaine gave me a different way to think about legacy by quoting a friend: “What we do during our working hours determines what we have; What we do during our leisure hours determines who we are.”

Did you move on the trajectory you expected to when you were fresh out of school and shiny with expectation? I know I didn’t. Like pinball machines, we often ricochet from one project to the next, one achievement to another, and from the tail of one goal to the head of a new one.

Each of us leaves a footprint…a legacy of love, contributions and gifts to the world. It’s about the kindness we show others, the daily encouragements we give, the beauty we share.

Not to dismiss the contributions of an Eistein, Van Gogh or Jonas Salk, but maybe we need a different way to measure legacy,  Maybe each of us needs to take time to celebrate ourselves, our legacy, and the contributions we make to create a better world, and to realize that footprint is equally important.

Initially published in the April 11 issue of Beyond the Nest’s Free Weekly Newsletter.