It would have been helpful if there was a Mayo Clinic chapter about the topic of “leaving.” Man, I would have read that chapter over and over — leaving your wailing baby in the morning without wanting to slit your wrists; leaving your desk even though you are only a half hour away from completing something that would feel so good to wrap up; leaving the building so no one notices that you are actually leaving. I was much more interested in honing that skill than learning how to puree apples and carrots to freeze in ice-cube trays (not that I ever did that either). As long as I was a full-time working mother with a clock to punch or a train to catch — as I would be for eight more years — I never figured out how to leave with grace or with so-called conviction.

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