When the practice must end

A practice is not a medic, and it is not a locked door against help.

When a practice makes the world harder to return to — panic rising, sleep gone, the walls leaning in — put it down. Call someone. Take the medicine. Go where help is.

The living outrank the working. No working is worth the life it was for.

Stop, and say it out loud: enough for today; the world remains, and I return to it.