Whenever I see the picture above, I remind myself that we can take a break any time. The boy who was playing the part of Gabriel at the school's nativity play was supposed to announce that Mary was going to have a baby. As the audience turned to him, he was taking a break! We do not want to wake up in an ICU unit somewhere, having survived our first heart attack.
We don’t want the cardiologist to be the first person to tell us to slow down.
Like Gabriel at that nativity play, we need to realize that it’s our right to take a break, even if everything seems really important, even if everybody says it’s crucial – yes, finish the game, but don’t start the next game immediately. You cannot recuperate from 50 weeks’ stress by spending two weeks away. It’s the little breaks, some even five minutes only, which give us the power to keep using ourselves up in living, not in dying.
Take it, you deserve it!