LR freezes-OSX Beach Ball on Import

An issue which used to occur once in the blue moon has increased in frequency.  LR (Build 1117303) will oftentimes freeze, showing the OSX Beach Ball, and fail to unfreeze.  The only solution is to Force Quit Lightroom.  Upon Force Quit, I'm unable to restart it.  LR icon in the dock simply bounces and the application does not load.  I am then forced to reboot my whole machine. 

The issue has happened three times today, and I am a little concerned about hundreds of client files in my LR database.

OSX 10.11.6

iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015.

If anyone has any pointers, I'd appreciate them. 

I truly miss the stability and speed of Apple

s Aperture, may she rest in peace.