Time is precious. Just surviving seems to use up a lot of it. But, as with crystals, there are useful little spaces in between the mundane stuff (spot the interstitial atom of carbon, lurking between the tediously repeating atoms of the austenite lattice below) . . .
There’s things that must be done in life
Or else you won’t survive,
Like eating, sleeping – all the things
You need to stay alive.
And other things you have to do
All take a lot of time,
Like shopping, cooking, washing-up
And getting rid of grime.
But things that make you really you,
That set you quite apart,
Are different things: like meeting friends,
And making music, art,
And learning things, and teaching things,
And being bold and daring,
And growing things, and building things,
And nurturing, and caring.
In busy lives you need these things
To counter stress and strife;
To fit them in, you need to find
The interstices of life.