Inspired by Doctor Who, Vincent van Gogh & the Song “Chances” by the British band, Athlete.

There is a tenderness hidden inside certain stories, the kind that rises from the screen and settles quietly within you, refusing to let go. Doctor Who is made of such stories. Science fiction, yes, but also something much older: an echo of our earliest myths, where wanderers traveled through the world trying to understand time, pain, love, beauty, and their place in it all.

But nothing prepared me for the episode about Vincent van Gogh.

In this episode, a time traveler named the Doctor stands in a field with a man (Vincent Van Gogh) from a past era that’s been dismissed, misunderstood, or forgotten. Together, they look up at the same sky, both aware that greatness and pain can coexist within the fragile human spirit. And when the song “Chances” begins, seize all your opportunities while you can… something inside me unravels. Not from sadness, but from recognition.

Because there, woven inside this British sci-fi storyline, was a truth I have been circling for years: we are each just leaves on different branches of the same cosmic tree.

Growing separately.

Reaching differently.

Unfolding in our own directions.

Yet still connected, always, in ways we rarely comprehend.

Vincent never knew how his light would reach us. He painted because he had to, because beauty demanded expression, not applause. And when he is briefly transported to the museum where his work fills entire rooms with color and reverence, he breaks open. His face tries to hold all the wonder and disbelief at once. That scene is devastating, not because of tragedy, but because it challenges a belief I’ve held for so long: that success and failure are measurable, definable, and tangible. That impact must be proven. That worth requires evidence.

Is this what legacy feels like? To know you mattered, even if you couldn’t see it at the time?

In the fifth series, episode ten, the Doctor brings Vincent Van Gogh to the Musée d’Orsay to see his work honored in the modern world.  The song “Chances” underscores the moment when Vincent hears the curator describe him as the “greatest painter of them all.” Watching this was a profound lesson; we’re not meant to judge our growth by the neat metrics of productivity and external validation. Our worth isn’t in the branches we climb, but in the light we share with the world just by being ourselves. Our connection, across generations, across time, across unseen distances, is the true masterpiece.

Van Gogh realized his worth, briefly but beautifully, and this moment taught me something I keep coming back to: the universe doesn’t measure our lives the way we do. We focus on outcomes. It sees ripples. We count accomplishments. It witnesses resonance. We hold onto productivity. It honors the courage to create magic without any reason at all.

The truth…the freeing, sometimes uncomfortable, miraculous truth, is that we cannot grasp the extent of the lives we touch. We may not always see the person we uplifted with a simple smile, the story we shared that changed someone’s course, or the quiet healing that took root in someone else because we chose to be genuine.

And just like the time-traveling Doctor, we don’t always get to fix life. We only get to show up in it…fully, bravely, imperfectly. To offer kindness without proof. To create beauty without permission. To live artfully instead of efficiently.

Perhaps this is the deeper lesson of the Vincent episode: we shouldn’t judge our growth solely by productivity and external validation. Our worth isn’t in the branches we climb but in the light we share with the world just by being ourselves. Our connection, across generations and distances, is the true masterpiece.

And when the emotional truth of Athlete’s lyric returns…Take all your chances while you can… I hear it differently now. Impact and legacy aren’t always visible in the moment you’re living them. It’s not urging risk. It’s an inviting presence. It’s a reminder that this life is impossibly brief, but beautiful, and that meaning is something we participate in, not something we wait to be given.

We are all leaves, yes. But we are also lanterns. We shine because we must. We reach because it is our nature. And somewhere, someone we may never meet is illuminated by our existence. That feels like the kind of success worth keeping.