Just one more task on this project, and it will be done. But then the next one will come through. It seems all I ever do is work through one project after another. Sometimes, multiple projects at the same time. I finished the last entries on the computer and sent the team my completed notification. I was done. I released a sigh of relief and closed my laptop. Done. The thing is...I went to refresh my coffee, and by the time I returned to my desk, there was a notification on my phone. Another project. I didn’t even get 10 minutes to recover from the last project! I sipped my coffee, returned to my chair, and just sat. Staring at my computer, not wanting to open it. Oh well. I opened my laptop and signed into the project to get the details of the tasks I was responsible for. I spent a few minutes organizing myself when I saw the email from human resources. ‘You are about to lose vacation time.’ Great! A new project dropped in my laptop, and I’m to lose hours of vacation time I worked hard to accumulate. So I need to take time off. How do I get time off without disrupting the project? Where can I go that won’t be too far? How do I take my mind off the project? I chuckled as I realized that everything was stressing me out; even thinking of taking time off to relax was stressing me out. My God, I need a vacation. I took a deep breath and sent a note to the project lead. ‘I needed to take time off, or I would lose vacation hours. I will be back in 5 days.’ Remarkably, they said fine. There would be no disruption; they would just focus on other tasks while I was out. Great! So I packed a small bag and decided to go to the lake. A place my family and I would go when I was young. It wasn’t too far and didn’t require reservations or complicated planning. Just me, some gear, and the water. I remembered the place I used to go, a small island not too far from the shore, with a big, beautiful tree and a place to sit. When the sunset, it would sit in just the right place. That’s where I went. I sat and watched the sunset. Smiling with eyes closed as I realized I didn’t tie off the boat. I could hear it floating away. Oh well, I’ll worry about that later.  

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