A time to gather and scatter stones?

I had an insight from yesterday's first reading and I wanted to share it.

Ecclesiastes 3:5 struck me as having an unusual construction. Whereas every other line in this chapter refers to normal every day activity, or at least things that could be done over the course of someone's life, verse five seemed out of place.

"A time to scatter stones"? When do we scatter stones, or how does that relate to giving birth, healing, weeping, seeking, or loving? (All other "times" listed in chapter 3.)

So I googled it. (As we now Google everything. And maybe we should add to this chapter, “a time to Google things…”) And one interpretation stood out among the rest.

My suspicion was that verse five contained a euphemism, because if gathering stones means “to build,” then why is that already in verse 3? And if (as some interpreters suggest) it means “war,” then why is that in verse 8?

The interpretation that stood out was that there is a time for abstaining from intercourse due to impurity, and a time to come together after ritual impurity.

Given the prevalence of “ synonymous parallelism” in the Wisdom literature, especially here in chapter 5, it’s useful to look at 5a and 5b as a parallel.

After all, verses 2, 3, and 4 all contain synonymous parallelism.

Verse 5b is: “a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.”

So if this interpretative approach is valid, this means that:

"There is a time for everything: including Natural Family Planning."

I've shared this with some close friends, but it's hard to hear, and frankly, hard to share: a key ingredient to a happy, healthy, long-lasting marriage is planned times of abstinence. (see 1 Cor. 7:5)