"Turn! Turn! Turn!"

Finding myself in the midst of a period of advanced workaholism and not being able to drag myself away from my job for long hours, has made me appreciate the time I can give myself even more. The precious hours when I can sleep without my subconscious keeping a weather eye on the alarm clock, when I don't have to stumble to the shower and wriggle myself onto the public transport system at an indecent hour, are the ones I spend with the most care. Yes, it's about self-preservation, but it's also about mental administration, the time when I can tie up loose ends, sweep away the cobwebs from the less-used parts of my life and think about those people that I find myself drifting away from in this squall of activity. Or, as the Byrds would have said, "A time to build up, a time to break down/A time to dance, a time to mourn/A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together." Pete Seeger wrote this, well, adapted this, but the Byrds with their soaring harmonies and ice-clean guitars are the definitive take. It takes a song like this to bring us back to earth and to realise that in some ways, the Bible is the greatest self-help manual ever written.