Submit a Review

Media Reviews

Carissa Reiniger, Founder & CEO, Silver Lining

Time came just in the knick of time! There is not a conversation that goes by where I don't find myself talking with someone about how busy, stressed, overwhelmed, inundated and frenzied they feel.  Technology has resulted in a new unspoken rule that says we are to be constantly available and never turn off. But the world is ready for some new rules - rules that protect our spirit, our fun and our health. I love Donna's totally practical and spiritually based view. And I love her challenge to all of us to shift our perspective and to make different choices.   Challenge accepted! I am already crafting my new time feast!

Len Wilson, author, "Think Like a Five Year Old" (Abingdon)

Schaper names the epidemic of “time famine,” caused by our conflation of effort and virtue, and points us to ways to reclaim presence. If your tendency is to skip through books like this to look for salient points, then you’ve just identified part of the problem. Take time for this and you will be rewarded.

Rev. Freeman L. Palmer, Associate Conference Minister, New York Conference United Church of Christ

In response to the oft-quoted lament of ‘never having enough time,’ we have the wisdom of a Twenty-first century Solomon. In Time: From Famine to Feast Donna Schaper deftly leads the reader on an important spiritual journey that turns this lament on its ear with grace, authenticity and humor. At its end one is equipped to live perhaps the time of their lives. Opportune and ideal for both individual and group reflection, anyone who engages in Time: From Famine to Feast will find doing so time well spent.

Reverend Alexander E. Sharp, Executive Director, Clergy for a New Drug Policy

At the beginning, you will enjoy this book. By the end, you will be profoundly grateful not only for what it says about time, but about how to live.

Jennifer Crumpton, author, "Femmevangelical: The Modern Girl's Guide to the Good News"

Reading Time: From Famine to Feast felt like sitting down over a cup of tea to work through some of my deepest concerns about how to live a meaningful life with one of the wisest women I know. Packed full of poignant observations about how we can befriend, tend and spend our most precious resource, Donna Schaper leads us on a spiritual quest for "personal coherence" with wit, humor and some serious "aha" moments. This insightful, practical and efficient book is a must-read for anyone seeking new ways to dig out of your deadening time hole and "calmly plot your resurrection."

Say the words “time famine” and people immediately know what you mean. Some people call the time famine “time poverty,” or the “time suck.” Others call it the war against rest. Still others just whine, “I don’t have enough time. I never have enough time.” We could imagine these complaints as fear of mortality. Of course we don’t have enough time. We get the days we get. But more pervasively, these complaints are practical statements. I have more to do than I have time in which to do it. I want more than I can get in the time I am allotted. That is the time famine. It involves our consent to a scarcity metaphor for life, one that we set up ourselves by not defining what we mean by more, less, and enough.

The time famine becomes a deeper disease as well. It goes viral. It turns a spiritual and psychological corner after it attacks our calendars, sleeping habits, and even our lunch practices. The New York Times recently published an article showing how people no longer do business lunches. A quick portable coffee will do.

And it’s not just this week or next week during which we don’t have enough time.

Click here for an exclusive Wood Lake interview with Donna Schaper

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 18, 2016


From Time Famine to Time Feast

There is an all-too-common and pervading sense that we have more to do than we can possibly get done in the time we have. Most of us live with some version of "time famine." The trick, according to Donna Schaper in her insightful new book on the subject, Time: From Famine to Feast, is to move from famine to feast, from a sense of not having enough time, to a sense of freedom, enjoyment, and fulfillment within the time we have.

She writes, “Say the words “time famine” and people immediately know what you mean. Some people call the time famine “time poverty,” or the “time suck.” Others call it the war against rest. Still others just whine, “I don’t have enough time. I never have enough time.” We could imagine these complaints as fear of mortality. Of course we don’t have enough time. We get the days we get. But more pervasively, these complaints are practical statements. I have more to do than I have time in which to do it. I want more than I can get in the time I am allotted. That is the time famine. It involves our consent to a scarcity metaphor for life, one that we set up ourselves by not defining what we mean by more, less, and enough.”

Schaper offers encouragement and advice on how to leave the land of famine and find a seat at the feast. Discussing and then moving beyond the systemic sources of the time famine, Schaper’s ultimate goal is to explore “the inner way, the way we have internalized the commandments of multiple systems and feel bad or wrong or in violation or out of compliance if we don’t obey our orders to be busy, active, connected, overworked, and time famished.”

This is a journey that will require us to be honest about just how starved we really are, as well as navigate our “work-family time dilemma,” discern what “coheres” us, and get comfortable with play. Of course, practice is required, so Schaper provides 52 practices for each week of the year designed to bring us to our place at the feast.

Entrepreneur Carissa Reiniger, Founder & CEO of Silver Lining states, "Donna Schaper's book Time: from Famine to Feast came just in the knick of time! There is not a conversation that goes by where I don't find myself talking with someone about how busy, stressed, overwhelmed, inundated and frenzied they feel. Technology has resulted in a new unspoken rule that says we are to be constantly available and never turn off. But the world is ready for some new rules - rules that protect our spirit, our fun and our health. I love Donna's totally practical and spiritually based view. And I love her challenge to all of us to shift our perspective and to make different choices. Challenge accepted! I am already crafting my new time feast!"

Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, formerly at Yale University, is Senior Minister for Judson Memorial Church at iconic Greenwich Village in New York City. Schaper’s purpose in life is  to “kick hope into high gear” and show people what is possible through the magnificence of human community strategically focused and spiritually filled. Her voluminous writings tell the tale of her interfaith marriage, her pioneer work as an ordained woman, her quiet spirituality and her noisy activism.

5.5 x 8.5 inches, Paperback, 88 pages
ISBN 978-1-77064-811-1, Price $14.95

For author interviews or review copies, contact:

Kailee Thorne, Publicity
WOOD LAKE PUBLISHING
485 Beaver Lake Road, Kelowna BC V4V 1S5
Phone: 1.800.663.2775
Email: [email protected]