Recess

My turn.  Pick a random word in the dictionary.  I know it is fraught.  It might be some obscure word that I have never heard of.  Fortunately, today it is not like that.  Today’s word is “recess” or a break from activity.  I feel like I have been there, done that and will continue to do it.
Merril and I have been cleaning and clearing Stu’s home for new people to be in.  We have been busy.  We know we put pressure on ourselves by bringing forward the day of hand-over, but we just wanted it over.
New people are there now, and we feel like we earned a recess.  Boy did we make the most of it.  Talk about sleep.  We knew there was stuff to be done at our home but knew that could wait.  All we wanted to do was veg and we did it really well.
Recess has always been important to me.  Everyone has a limit.  Sometimes it is time to recharge the batteries.  It seems in this day and age it is treated as less important.  People are worked like dogs.  Thing is, at work if I burn out, there is someone to replace me.  I do not matter – the job does.  Not good.
We can hear the school bell from our place and know when it is little lunch and lunch time.  Students are hard at work but there comes a time.  They say the seat cannot endure more than the head can absorb.  It almost seems like that is disregarded in a job.
I heard of one employee who was approached on Friday afternoon and given something the boss said he needed by Monday morning.  The guy said well you ring and tell my wife our time we set aside to be together is off.  The boss decided at that point he did not need it so quickly.
The thing is people will use us if we let them.  We need to know when to draw the line.  Recovery matters.  There is a time for everything and that includes a recess.  A guy had to shovel gravel into a wheelbarrow, push the wheelbarrow to another location and unload it.   He was told pushing the barrow was a recess from shoveling and unloading was a recess from pushing the barrow.  Technically that is true, but a true recess to me is one that does not involve that job at all.
 It may be time with the family or a hobby or doing something different that I find fulfilling.  Whatever it is, I need to do it if I want to maintain my productivity.  I personally cannot work seven days a week.  I tried it.  It ended up that the weekend was like two half days and I was cactus.
A recess matters.  But I find trying to spend all my life in recess hard work.  I am big on balance but in that regard I remain a work in progress.  When I fail to take a recess, my body inevitably tells me it is time for one.