Cayce’s blog about rejuvenation and Don’s blog about lunch on vacation inspired me to write this blog. Last week I was in court trying to schedule continuing trial dates with my adversary and the judge. The judge suggested some October dates during a week I will be away on vacation. When I mentioned my vacation, my adversary said to me with a great deal of pride in his voice-- and a bit of a condescending tone-- “Oh you get to take vacations? I don’t.”

Before I had the opportunity to respond the judge did saying, “When someone works as hard as Ms. Gura obviously does, she clearly has the right to take a vacation.” She then suggested that we choose continuing dates two weeks after I returned.

That was not the first time I have heard someone tell me that they do not take vacations. As a young lawyer, however, my second place of employment was a Manhattan firm where I was taught the importance of vacations. We were expected to work very hard, round the clock if the need arose. But, we were also expected to take our vacation time. It was ingrained in me and all of my fellow workers that we needed to learn to balance the hard work with our personal life.

If we cannot take the time to enjoy ourselves, what’s the point?