February 18, 2026 • 54 mins
Today's conversation centers on the powerful idea that the everyday moments we often ignore can actually guide us in finding ourselves and creating new paths. We have a conversation with Lorie Kleiner Eckert, a skilled storyteller whose thirty years of experience are woven into her recent book, "Chai on Life."
This thoughtful discussion reveals how change doesn’t have to come from dramatic events—it can begin simply by noticing and valuing the finer details of our routine lives. Lorie’s perspective highlights that even when life is difficult, it’s possible to move forward and flourish. Join us to discover how appreciating small experiences can help spur real personal growth and satisfaction.
Takeaways:
- The stories of our lives, however small, often serve as a profound roadmap toward self-discovery and personal growth.
- Reinvention need not stem from crises; rather, it may arise from the simple yet courageous act of paying attention to our experiences.
- Recognizing and celebrating our small accomplishments can significantly foster self-acceptance and boost our self-esteem.
- Embracing the journey of life involves understanding that every step, no matter how minute, contributes to our overall progress and well-being.
Find us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite listening platform; visit us on our YouTube channel Find everything "One More Thing" here: https://taplink.cc/beforeyougopodcast
Want to be a guest on One More Thing Before You Go? Send Michael Herst a message on PodMatch, here: PODMATCH Proud member of the Podmatch Network of Top Rated- Podcasts
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, one more thing before yougo. What if the stories of your life,
the small moments, the quietlessons, the things you almost forgot,
were actually the roadmap tobecoming who you are and who you
were meant to be? What ifreinvention didn't require a crisis,
but simply the courage to payattention? Today we're talking to
someone who has spent morethan 30 years turning ordinary moments
(00:23):
into extraordinary wisdom andstitching those lessons into books,
speeches and columns, and evenquilts. Today we're going to answer
these questions and many, manymore and teach you how to improve
your life. I'm your host,Michael Hirsch. Welcome to one more
thing before you go. Today'sguest is a storyteller in every sense
(00:54):
of the word. Lori Kleiner asEckert is a motivational speaker,
an award winning columnist, anationally syndicated writer, a quilt
artist whose work weaves wordsand symbols into fabric, and the
author of five books,including her newest release, which
we're going to talk abouttoday. High on life. For more than
three decades, Lori has spokento over 250 audiences across 11 states,
(01:17):
sharing her slices of her lifewith one mission to help people see
that yes, life is difficult,but you can handle it. We have that
in common. Her new book, highon Life offers 36 stories, each paired
with one line, takeaways offull color illustration as a part
memoir, part motivation, andpart spiritual wink. Because hi chai
(01:39):
in Hebrew means life ispronounced hi. So, yes, this is a
book that literally is high onlife. Welcome to the show, Lori.
Well, thank you so much,Michael. I appreciate the fact that
you do this show. It's terrific.
Well, I am grateful thatyou're here because you have a lot
of wisdom to share. You got alot of journey to share, experience
(02:03):
to share. And I think we'reall going to learn something today.
Well, I like to. I alwayswould tell my audiences that I don't
think that I'm wise. I thinkthat everybody knows the same things
I know. And I think it wasRichard Bach who said that we tend
to teach best that which wemost need to learn. So I'm trying
(02:27):
to learn all these things,too. And, and I learned so much from
my audiences and from myreaders and so forth and from you.
So here I am. Let's be wise together.
Wise together. This. What amantra. That's a nice mantra. I think
we could use that mantra,can't we? I, I can't, like, start
with two big questions. Theykind of stood at the heart of your
work. Like how? Let me trythis one. The first one, how can
(02:51):
we. The small stories of ourlives, the ones we often overlook,
become powerful tools forreinvention, healing, and self acceptance?
I'm jumping right into this.
Oh, sure. So how does thathappen? I mean, we are what, a compilation
of everything that we've done.So I, what, often lack self esteem
(03:15):
and, you know, thinksomething's wrong with me. But then
a friend will usually suggestto me that I read one of my books
where I'm telling everybodyelse that they're wonderful just
the way they are so that Iwill feel that way about myself.
And when they stop me and makeme remember, I have to stop and think.
You know, really, I have fivebooks in print. I have spoken to,
(03:41):
you know, audiences in 11states. Dates. I have done a lot,
and I have to give myselfcredit for my accomplishments. So
those are my accomplishments.But, you know, like, the lady friend
I had breakfast with thismorning has all these kids and she's
got all these grandkids andshe writes thank you notes and she
writes, sends everyoneThanksgiving cards and Christmas
(04:04):
cards. These are wonderfulaccomplishments of staying in touch
with people. So we all haveour accomplishments and we have to
give ourselves credit for it.And. Yeah, so all of the small stuff
is really not small stuff.It's what's important.
I agree with you. I think thatsometimes we have to stop and, well,
the old cliche stop and smellthe roses, kind of think about, you
(04:25):
know, what's going on aroundus, who's in our lives, who we can
be grateful for, what we canbe grateful for, and. And, you know,
think of ourselves too,because we have to take care of ourselves
before we can take care ofsomebody else.
Definitely. One of the storiesin High on life is called 30 Reasons
to Be Grateful. At mygranddaughter's soccer game, and
(04:48):
one of the reasons was thatsome other grandma had her shirt
on inside out, but it wasn't me.
You know, I was a good name, right?
Yeah. And the one linetakeaway from the story is that there's
always something to begrateful for. So this doesn't wipe
out the fact that there areoften things to be sad about and
(05:09):
discouraged about anddepressed. Depressed about. But.
But there's always somethingto be grateful for.
That's a fact. I've learnedthat in my personal life as well
as my professional life, youcould always be grateful for the
little things. And. And peoplestop. People forget. It's a lot of
little things that make up abig thing.
Oh. Oh, definitely. So. Well,I'm really jumping right in. So another
(05:34):
of the Stories in High on Lifeis how to reinvent yourself. And
this is just a really majortopic for me. But my method, if you
want to talk about it later,has two parts to it. One is having
a healthy routine and theother is taking a step a day towards
(05:55):
your new life. But thosesteps, Michael, can be teeny tiny
steps. And sometimes they'remissteps and sometimes there's sidesteps,
but you just keep stepping.And so what is it? The journey of
a thousand miles starts withthe first step or whatever. You know,
all of that just adds up. Andso I heard another one of your podcasts
(06:19):
where you were wondering ifyou should say how old you are. Well,
I'm going to be 74 years old,so I'm just days away from it. And.
But all of those things, allof those teeny tiny steps, I mean,
I did raise three kids andthey're all successful, fully launched,
and I do have a house that isnot tumbling down around me. All
(06:43):
of these teeny tiny steps allgo together to make who I. Make me
who I am.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Athousand percent. First, happy early
birthday.
Thank you. I share my withAbraham Lincoln. So it'll be on Thursday
the 12th. Yeah.
So every year you get aNational Day.
(07:04):
I do. And some years I getreally lucky and my seventh grade
boyfriend will send me anemail I said saying, I think your
birthday is with AbrahamLincoln. You know, so I hear from
Randy, oh, every three, four years.
Again, the little things.Right? Little things, little things.
(07:25):
No, I'm proud of my age,actually. If you look at the line
I've been doing genealogicalresearch in, not to go off subject,
but it's interesting when yougo back and look at your generations.
And I go back like fourgenerations in my line and thus far
I'm the oldest male individualto date. Everybody else was gone
(07:46):
at like, my father died at 39,his father 27. The one before that
43, 46. So yeah, I'm gratefulevery day. Every day I get out of
bed, I'm grateful.
That's great.
That really works. Yeah, youknow, it's. We all have journeys
in life and I think, you know,let's help everybody understand,
like, what does it really meanto believe that life is difficult
(08:09):
but you can handle it. They'veheard my story and now let's talk
a little bit about your stories.
Well, really with the. I'mhappy to tell you my whole journey
really started with divorceand the need to reinvent myself from
being a full time mom and soforth, but about life Being difficult.
(08:35):
I always think of going, itwas my youngest daughter Lisa's first
day as a senior at the highschool. She's now 42 or 3 years old.
I always have to stop and dothe math. But I was a parent helper
serving donuts and juice tothe kids. And I just looked around,
(08:56):
around that room. I didn'tknow many of the kids. I mean, I
knew my daughter's friends,but it was a big school so I didn't
know everyone. But I'm lookingaround and I'm thinking, I bet that
guy is a little bit sadbecause his face broke out. And I
bet this guy's a little bitsad or gal because her hair isn't
perfect today. Or look at, youknow, or you know, this one over
(09:17):
here might feel like anoutcast. I really wasn't picking
on them. I was justidentifying that they may have problems
such as feeling like anoutcast, such as problems at home,
such as their parents just gotno noticed, you know, said they were
going to get divorced or maybesomething happened that was good
but shocking, like the familywas going to have a new baby. And
here's a high school kiddoesn't want to have a new baby in
(09:38):
their family. So I'm lookingat all these kids eating donuts and
orange juice and thinking thata vast majority of them are probably
in pain over something. Notanything critical, not anything they're
not going to live through. ButI just wanted to hug them all and
I wanted to say, which I do,life is difficult, but you can handle
it. And so. And then you haveto give yourself credit credit for
(10:00):
handling it. You know, youhave a bowl of ice cream tonight
in honor of having handled it.But you, you can do it. I'm sure
you can do it. And for my ownjourney. So I'm getting to the point
now where, where mygirlfriends are starting to lose
husbands, you know, so we'rein 70s and it's odd to me because
(10:24):
I've been on my own for solong and that they really don't realize
that their journey has. Theyknew they had a partner, but how
much that partner participatedor I don't even know what to say.
My one friend. So I'm in theMidwest and when it gets cold, the
(10:47):
tire light goes on on mydashboard to say the tires low when
it's too cold outside. And soI said to my friend, I took the car
to the dealership to have airadded. And she said to the dealership,
we just go to the gas stationand fill the tires. And I said, well,
I don't know how to do that.And she said, well, she doesn't either,
(11:09):
but her husband does. So, youknow, so my journey on my own. So
I have to give myself credit.I figured out you can go to the dealership
and they will fill your tiresfor you, you know. So anyway, the
journey. I have. I have beenjourneying for a long time. You have
to tell you one. Well, so we.We've just kind of touched on things
(11:32):
without really going there.But I make quilts with words and
symbols pieced into thedesign. And I haven't made this quilt
yet, but I want to. And theexpression the joy is in the journey.
That's literal. The wordjourney is Jo at the beginning and
why at the end is thatastounding? I think that that is
(11:56):
just. That's telling us somuch. That's a nod from the universe
that to find the joy in whatwe're doing right now.
I believe you're. I agree withthat. I agree with that. And those
little, those littleaccomplishments, those little things
that you end up doing on yourown. I applaud you for recognizing
(12:16):
that it is a positive step ofthe forward in a forward way. And
my mother, I grew up withpretty much a single mother. She
raised three kids and in the70s and 80s. And I know how difficult
it is for a woman, especiallyduring that time. As you know, you
couldn't even have a checkingaccount until 1974. And an interview
(12:41):
with a young woman whosegrandmother was. Was the congressman,
one of the first women inCongress, who then pushed that through
Congress to change that law sothat women can have a checking account
and buy property and didn'thave to have a husband or a father
or a brother co sign for themfor stuff. So I applaud your journey
(13:03):
in regard to reinventionbecause sometimes people don't do
that. They think I've losteverything. I don't know what to
do and I don't know where to go.
Yeah. Well, I have to saythough, on. So thank you. I appreciate
that. Pat on the back and Ineed it. We all do. But on the topic
of recreating yourself in thejourney, I think one thing that makes
(13:26):
it easier possibly to do is torealize that we have all reinvented
ourselves dozens of timesthat. But that there are happy reinventions
when we get the collegedegree, when we get married, when.
And we have a child. These arepositive reinventions. But you don't
(13:48):
be fooled. You have reinventedyourself. And so the Same skills
that you use in learning howto be a college graduate, you know,
or a parent you can put to usein. In the sadder reinventions that,
you know, when you get fired,when you flunk a class, when you
get divorced, when you have anempty nest, you know, when you lose
(14:09):
your spouse or you get a badhealth diagnosis. You've been through
some of these, you know, andyou are reinventing yourself, but
you have lots of skillsbecause you have done it so many
times. They like to tell thestory of a Broadway musical called
Avenue Q. And the opening lineis, a guy comes out on stage waving
(14:31):
a piece of paper. I just gotmy bachelor's degree in English.
And the second line is, whatdo you do with a bachelor's degree
in English? No. So that was ahappy reinvention. But what. What
comes next?
Exactly. Exactly. We have totake. And that goes back to the step
(14:52):
thing, as you mentionedearlier. You have to take that first
step and move yourselfforward. You spend more than 30 years
doing that and turning yourlife into lessons for others through
books and speeches and columnsand the quotes that you just talked
about. Where did that callingcome from? In regard to that we mentioned
(15:13):
before we started, and peopleknow that from my show, my desire
was to motivate, educate, andinspire people from my journey itself.
And that life doesn't stopjust like you do. I know that's part
of your message and that lifedoesn't stop when life changes and
that you can move it forward.Kind of what inspired you to take
(15:35):
your experiences and to helpshare those.
Yeah, I'll say two things outloud so you can help me if I lose
my train of thought. One isthat I have always been a sounding
board for people, and theother is that I got divorced, so
help me if I lose my train ofthought. So I got divorced. So I
wasn't doing anything foranybody else. I was trying to get
(15:56):
a paid profession, and Ithought that I would turn my hobby
of quilt making into a paidprofession. So if you're a quilter,
you would know that there arequilt shows and quilt contests and
quilt everything all over thecountry, indeed, all over the world,
all the time. And I thoughtthat I would market myself to that
(16:17):
group as a quilt lecturer. ButI didn't have confidence in myself
artistically. I knew I was agreat quilt technician, so I was
giving myself credit for whatI knew. So this means that if I had
fabric with Christmas trees init, the Christmas trees all stood
up. Right. None of them wouldbe lying on their Side or if I made
(16:37):
stars, I didn't lop off thepoints. I had pointy edges on those
stars. So I was a good quilttechnician, but I wasn't sure I was
a good quilt artist. And thereare lots of amazing quilt artists
out there, so I needed to beable to compete. And so I thought,
well, I'll make quilts withwords pieced into the design. So
no one else was doing that.And then I gave myself a really stiff
(17:01):
goal. I was going to make onequilt every two weeks so that at
the end of six months, I have12 quilts and I could take my show
on the road. And, and I was.I'm a tall woman, 5 foot 7, but I'm
kind of scrawny. So I didn'tthink I could make bed sized quilts.
I was making wall hangingsbecause how could I schlep 12 bed
(17:24):
sized quilts around thecountry with me? So I was making
these wall hangings with wordspieced into the design and I just
had whatever I needed to sayon the quilt. So, you know, and so
one said bloom and one saidsoar. And one said, come as you are,
you're lovely. Another onesays, I pledge allegiance to me.
So anyway, all of those quiltswork together to tell one story of
(17:50):
the journey towards selfacceptance. And I realized that I
didn't have to just take thatmessage to quilt people, that I could
take it to a general audience.And indeed, quilters would pay. This
is in the mid-90s. You know,they pay like $75 for a program.
But if I called myself amotivational speaker, I could go
(18:12):
to other groups. And so that'swho I marketed myself to. I marketed
myself to everything fromPTAs, ladies church groups, to Proctor
and Gamble. And I went andtold the story about, you know, the
journey, the journey, here wego again, towards self acceptance
and love. So that was myimpetus, was to make an income. But
(18:34):
from there, the reason that itworked out so well for me is that
I've always been everyone'scheerleader. I have had so many people
when I was a kid, when I wasin high school, so many people called
me and cried on my shoulder.And sometimes I would get off the
(18:54):
phone crying myself. And mydad said to me, if you can't talk
on the phone and get offwithout crying, then you're not allowed
to talk on the phone anymore.So that's just who I am. I'm the.
I listen, I give advice.Again, not rocket science, you know,
but I give advice and I Giveencouragement. You can do it. And,
(19:17):
oh, well, look what justhappened. You just called me, you
reached out for help. Well,look at you. Aren't you doing great?
You know, and I found all thethings to be grateful for in, you
know, what they were tellingme. And so that then did become the
journey to make a difference.I always felt that was so necessary
(19:42):
that, you know, that all of mytalents were God's gift to me, but
what was I going to do withthose talents? And yeah, so that
got me going. And may Icontinue on that story of being a
motivational speaker and aquilter for a minute?
(20:02):
Absolutely. Because I thinkthat. I think it. What I like about
you is that, you know, you hadsaid in some of the interviews that
I have seen you in is thatevery story you share is an invitation
for someone to see themselvesmore clearly. And. And I think that's.
You kind of embraced that, Ithink, throughout your speaking career
and, and what you bring topeople, especially in the quilts,
I think it's a brilliant wayof doing that. So, yes, please continue.
(20:25):
Well, so here I am themotivational speaker, speaking to
all kinds of groups. And, oh,they liked me and they wanted me
to come back, but I only hadone program and I had, of course,
sold. I had written it up asan adult picture book, you know,
short on words, full ofpictures. So my first book was an
(20:47):
adult picture book and I soldit to Pelican Publishing Company.
And so then that gave mecredentials as well as a published
author. But people wantedanother lecture from me, so I created
a second series of quilts andPelican Publishing Co. Published
another book of mine, and nowI had another lecture. But the odd
(21:09):
thing with the second book isthat I wrote a thousand word essay
to go with each quilt. So theidea of a picture and a thousand
words, that was what I wasgoing for. And so it was after I
got my second book publishedthat I realized I like to write.
How crazy is that? So I thinkthat that's also something that people
(21:35):
should. Could. Might learnfrom me is that I really didn't have
a game plan. I just took everyopportunity that offered itself to
me, and it's taken me far. Sothen I like writing, so I started
to write a Slice of Lifecolumn. I was in my 40s at that time,
(21:58):
divorced, and I wrote aboutbeing single in midlife. And I syndicated
that to little newspapersacross the country. And then I compiled
a year's worth of thosecolumns. And that became my third
book, which has a name thatpeople Buy the book for the name.
(22:20):
There is, I think, except onthe secondary market. I think I have
four more copies of this book.Otherwise it's sold out after only
20 years. But it's. I Need aMan's Pants to Wash. Isn't that a
funny story?
Yeah, I was going to ask youabout that. I thought, what an interesting
(22:41):
title.
And people love the name.Yeah, well, so there's a story behind
that. There's a story behindeverything. Everybody has a hundred
stories, a thousand stories, amillion stories. And I encourage
you to write them down. Highon Life has a companion piece of
a blank journal, so you canwrite your own stories, by the way.
(23:02):
But anyway, my grandma, withwhom I was very close, my bubby,
when my grandpa died, I saidto her, you know, Bob, don't you
want to get remarried again?And she said, I need a man's pants
to wash. So she was verycertain she wasn't going there. But
I'm 42 years old and divorcedand I'm not really sure, so I call.
(23:24):
So I called the book, whichwas Slice of Life Stories about Being
Single in Midlife. I Need aMan's Pants to Wash. But there's
no punctuation. There's notthis. None dark exclamation point
or period. It was. Let'sexplore this issue. So that's. That's
what I did.
That's what you did. That's.That's brilliant, actually. That's
(23:44):
really brilliant. Yeah, Ithink. I think it reminds me some
stories that I told you aboutRichie, who used to work for me.
Very good friend. And, andkind of reminds me of some of the
stories that he and his wifehad shared with me in regard to something
similar to that with hismother. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty
cool. I think. You know, it.It. What I'm. What I'm seeing kind
(24:08):
of a pattern of, is thatyou're kind of a cheerleader for
someone who reminds peoplethat life is hard, but you know,
you're capable in that you cando it, you can achieve it. And I
think that you learn thatphilosophy from your own journey,
right?
Definitely. I mean, really,when I'm down sincerely, people suggest
(24:32):
to me that I read my own books.
Take your own advice, your own advice.
And I am really forced toremember the scads of things that
I have that I haveaccomplished and in the early days
of. Again, it's just so funnyto me that all of this kind of just
(24:55):
happened willy nilly for mejust by taking the next step. But
after writing that third book,which was a compilation of 52 columns
about being single in midlife.I actually wrote a book. I had been
involved with a man who wecalled Big Irv. That. That tells
(25:17):
you a lot about him rightthere. And when Big Irv died, you
know, that was. I had toreinvent myself. And so I did by
having a healthy routine,which is what I tell people to do,
and. And by taking one step aday in the new direction for me that
was writing. And so then hereI've got this fourth book, which
(25:41):
at that point, PelicanPublishing company wasn't publishing
the kind of stuff I write, sothey didn't want to publish it, though
they had published the firstthree, and I couldn't find a publisher.
Another one of your guests hadtalked about what a journey that
is, and that's a wild ride.But anyway, so I self published it.
And then. And then I thought Iwas again, like, you know, you get
(26:05):
married, you think you'redone, but now, now you have a marriage
or you have a baby and youthink you're done, but no, now you
have to raise it. So I thoughtI was done with that when I wrote
that fourth book. And instead,my publishing guru told me that I
needed a website, so I createda website. And then the website guru
told me that I needed to bringpeople to my website regularly so
(26:29):
that they would see the book.And so he said, you have to start
writing a blog. It's like whatI wrote. Well, I thought it was done
writing, so I started writingtwo blogs a month. I am currently
writing blog number 173. Sothat's a lot of years of writing
blogs.
Well done.
(26:49):
Yeah. And lo and behold, Highon Life is a compilation. It was
like maybe a dozen newsstories, but two dozen that had already
been published on my website.So, you see, I have to give myself
credit for all of this, don'tI? I mean, I could say it was all
(27:10):
willy nilly. There was nogrand plan. It just happened. It
did just happen, but I made ithappen. And in those early days of
having the website, I believethat I couldn't just ask people to
buy my book. I had to givethem something. So daily I posted,
if you go on my Instagram andscroll way, way, way, way, way, way,
(27:34):
way, way back, you're gonnasee daily motivational messages.
Just take one step forward,you know?
Exactly.
You know, take time to spellthe roses along the way. If it rains,
dance in the puddles, youknow, on and on and on and on. But
that is. That is me. That'sthe kind of cheerleader that I am.
(27:58):
That's a brilliant way toapproach life because I've seen too
many people that whensomething has forced them to change,
then whatever circumstancesthey're in, that force that change,
they sit back and go, I don'tknow what the heck to do. And I'm
just going to sit here andthink about it for a while. And then
they get depressed and theyget angry and they get resentful
(28:19):
and things go down a darkroad. So yeah, I think it's amazing
that you were able to takeeach time that you were presented
with something that was a lifechanging opportunity, you recognized
it, you grasped it.
Well, as I often say, what'splan B? You know, so plan B, I just
(28:39):
is to sit on the sofa. But inthe formalized version, in high on
life, when I talk aboutpersonal reinvention. So I've hinted
at it, but let's say it in somany words is that I give you a two
step process for personalreinvention. Why is it so easy? Because
often when you're reinventingyourself, you're in bad emotional
(29:02):
straits and you just don'twant to get off the sofa. So I'm
gonna make it really easy. Butof course this works for those happy
reinventions as well. So stepnumber one is that you have to have
a healthy daily routine. Sothat's real personal. It's what do
you do when you're flying highand things are going well for you?
(29:23):
What are the things that younaturally do? I bet you brush your
teeth every morning, I bet youtake a shower every night. I bet
you get dressed, I bet you goplaces. So you have to have a healthy
routine. For me, that isexercise and eating right and worrying
about my sleep hygiene and allthat kind of stuff. But it's whatever
is your, whatever is yournatural routine for when life is
(29:46):
going well. That's what youhave to do every day. So that's step
number one. And step numbertwo is to take a step, even if it's
teeny tiny. Teeny tiny isfine. But I encourage you to have
an accountability log so thatyou write down today's date and the
action that you took. And ifyou are in a happy reinvention, the
(30:09):
guy from Avenue Q with the newdegree in English, maybe you can
set a timer for 10 minutes anddo 10 minutes worth of stuff again.
I still want you to write itdown in your accountability log that
you did it, but maybe you canmake three phone calls or send four
emails or Whatever. In thedirection of your new life. And it's
(30:31):
just so surprising to me, evenwhen you're in a bad reinvention
that just really five, six,seven days into it, you're starting
to feel better. And the oneexample that I use is empty nest
syndrome. So when my lastchild went off to college, I really,
I could feel the weight of thesilence in the house. It had me pinned
(30:57):
to the sofa. And so I used mymethod, and I bought myself a spiral
notebook to write anaccountability log. And the first
day I contacted, I don'tremember if I, I must have done it
via email. I went to volunteermatch.com so it's all the volunteer
activities in your area. And Isigned up to be a volunteer for the
(31:21):
March of Dimes. And I, youknow, each day I did something, and
lo and behold, after five orsix days, I least had a place, a
meaningful place to go onTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever.
And it was. That's alifesaver. That's absolutely a lifesaver.
Yep, yep, yep. I, I, for sixmonths after I retired, I was calling
(31:44):
in stuff, and I'd say, call upand say, this is retired sergeant.
Blah, blah, blah, this isgoing on. This is going on. And then
the cops would show up andpull them over, do whatever they
need to do. And pretty soonthey kept going, sarge, we got this.
Just go home and relax. Putyour feet up. Because I was making
(32:05):
so many calls, because I, Ijust didn't know what to do with
myself, you know, I, I was acop. That's what I was. That's what
I did. And all of a sudden itstopped. So I'd see something, and
I kind of go, okay, I gottacall that in. Oh, okay, I gotta call
that in. I mean, obviously Ihad a lot of support from a colleague,
my family as well, mycolleagues. But I can relate to that
(32:25):
statement. You, you get stuckin a, in something, you have to kind
of break that routine beforeyou can throw yourself into something
new. But you have to recognizeit or somebody needs to kind of nudge
you a little bit in thatdirection and say, like I say, go
home, put your feet up, relax.We got this kind of thing. I find
(32:47):
the interesting, it's aninteresting title in this book. When
I first looked at it, I thinkof chai, like chai tea, right? I
drink Tai chi all the time. Ido it when I, When I meditate. I
love having a cup of tai chiwhen I'm a meditator, after I meditate.
So in the Hebrew Form. It'shigh. Right. High on life, 36 slices
of wisdom. It's a blend from.From what I can read so far, you
(33:12):
know, it's a blend of humorand spirituality and the Jewish culture
and everyday insightfullisteners who haven't seen it yet,
kind of. What inspired that inparticular and to take it from that
approach.
What inspired the title or.
Yeah, that title and thatapproach to go into it that way?
(33:36):
Well, the approach of 36Little Stories is because that's
what my blog is. So I didn'treally write this book. You know,
I wrote 12 news stories, butthey were stories that I would like
what I was writing, you know,previously. And so it was just. Okay,
(33:57):
let's look at. I don'tremember how many stories existed
at that time. 120, let's say.Let's look at the pick, the ones
that are evergreen because,you know, I talked about the pandemic
and that's come and gone, youknow, surprisingly. But I took the
most evergreen. So, you know,three places to find friends or,
(34:20):
you know, kinds of things thatare important to talk about every
now and again. So that's howthe format came around to be 36 stories.
Yeah. High on Life came aboutbecause the book, when I submitted
it to Bancroft Press, who's mypublisher, it was only 18 stories
(34:43):
because 18 is a mysticalnumber in Hebrew. 18, and it's called
hai or, you know, thedifference between Hanukkah and Hanukkah?
It's the same thing. Are yougoing to say it ch. Or you're going
to say it H. So hi. Or hi. Sowhen I submitted it to the publisher,
(35:05):
I submitted 18 stories. So itwas 18 stories on life. I liked the
fact that people. Because Ithink, though it does have a Jewish
flavor. Some of the storiestalk about Judaism, but most of them
not. But I like that it hintsat this chai tea because like you
(35:27):
said, when you meditate orwhen you're having a quiet moment
or for me to hold a cup ofsomething hot when it's cold here
in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I likethat, that people can think that
we're talking about chai teabecause we. Because this is a book
of comfort. I'm hoping you'recomforted reading this. You know,
I really do. I hope.
(35:49):
Yeah. That's brilliant.
Well. And how we got to 36stories is that the publisher, Bruce
Borch, said he was loathe topublish such a short book as 18 stories.
He said, you think you couldmake 36? I said, I can have it. To
you tomorrow, you know, so.
Oh, that's funny how ithappened. And he used the word loathe.
(36:12):
That means I gotta. I gottaadd some more. That's okay. You talk
about, like, self acceptancefor forgiveness, gratitude, personal
reinvention, and the magic ofone plus one adding up over time.
Can we. We talk about selfacceptance in regard to what you.
What you bring to that?
Oh, to self acceptance. Well,I have to take you to a couple of
(36:37):
the quilts. One of them says.Let's see, it says.
It says something.
What does that quilt say? Itsays, proud to be a strange bird.
And another one says, dare tobe different. So these are me. So
in the proud to be a strangebird, there are, I think, seven red
(37:01):
birds facing west, and I'm thegreen bird facing east. Or maybe
it's reverse. But anyway, I'mthe green bird and everyone else
is red. In the dare to bedifferent, there are three gorgeous
butterflies. In that case,they definitely are flying west,
while I'm blue flying in theother direction. So this has just
(37:22):
always been me. So here I amat midlife, and my friends are all
going by twosies onto the ark,and I'm divorced. So I've always
been different. So my message,again, I'm teaching what I most need
to learn is that you'rebeautiful just the way you are. So,
(37:45):
okay, so I'm the green bird,and everyone else. Almost everyone
else is red. And okay, I'm theblue butterfly. When most are orange,
it's okay. I'm fine just theway I am. So that's where that is.
And if anybody looks throughmy older books. So the first two
books with this ring and getquiet and listen are illustrated
(38:11):
with quilts. And so they'readult picture books. But if you look
at them, many of the quiltsare oddly shaped. They're not squares
or rectangles like most quiltswould be. Excuse me. Let me take
a sip of water. So that wasreflecting me. I'm oddly shaped.
(38:35):
I've always been oddly shaped.But of course, all the quilts are
beautiful. Even if I madethem, they are. Technically, they're
perfect. And there got to be atime where I made a quilt that was
so oddly shaped that therewere about a dozen different corners
you had to turn in order toput the binding on it. And to turn
(39:00):
a corner when you put bindingon is a challenge. And I thought
to myself, can you be donebeing so oddly shaped? And so isn't
that wonderful that lifesuggested that to me? You know, so
put it all Together in thesame way that I have to give myself
(39:21):
credit for my accomplishments,I have to give myself credit for
being okay as I am. And, youknow, plenty strange ash my kids.
I break out in song every nowand again and all kinds of embarrassing
things.
You know, that's life. That'slike Bill Frank Sinatra song. That's
(39:42):
life.
That's life. Yes, exactly.
Which brings me to Billy Joel.
Oh, Billy Joel.
Billy Joel. You use his songBig Shot, don't you?
I do. So I went to a BillyJoel concert, and everybody knew
every word of that song andshouted it along with him. And I
(40:06):
forget what magazine called ithis most. They used a different word,
ticked off song of his career.And so I happen to have been there.
This concert occurred right atthe Jewish holiday that we are dealing
(40:27):
with forgiveness. And itoccurred to me that Billy Joel is
earning royalties from hisanger. I'm not.
If we could do that, I'd bereally, really, really rich.
There's really, really noreason to carry this anger. So with
(40:50):
the Jewish holiday of YomKippur, we are supposed to forgive
everybody. But an interestingthing is. Oh. Because God forgives
everybody. So if you can'tforgive your neighbor, then you're
holding your neighbor tohigher standards than God is holding
them. So that's the nature ofthat. Yeah. But by the same token,
(41:16):
God forgives you also for yourfailings, for what you did wrong.
And again, then you can't bemad at yourself or whatever you're
mad at yourself for, becauseyou're holding yourself as you're.
You're. You know, you're usinga higher than God would use. So I
love that. I just love that.So, yes. So that's how Billy Joel
(41:38):
came into the book. I say thatthe book has 36 stories from everything
from belly fat to Billy Joel,Belly fat to Billy Joel.
That's a great marketing tool, right?
Yes. Isn't that great? Butit's true. And the one about belly
fat was I went to a woman'swellness event, and we had to write
(42:00):
a love letter to some part ofour body. So I wrote it to my belly
that I don't love becauseit's. It's kind of a pouchy belly,
even though I'm tall, youknow? And. And I thanked it because
part of the reason it's kindof flabby is because it had those
three amazing children who Iso adore. So on behalf of Scott,
(42:23):
on behalf of Shayna, on behalfof Lisa, I thank you. And then I
listed the 10 grandchildrenthat have come from those three.
And it's like, well, of courseyour belly is big. Look what it produced,
you know, and so, so that'sself acceptance, isn't it?
Yeah, that's a brilliant wayof doing that. I think now every
(42:44):
time I hear a big shot, everytime I hear bojo, that's what I'm
going to think about. What canI, what can I. Yeah, yeah.
You know, what happy load canyou put down? Because it is a heavy
load to carry or whatever. SoI am posting for people who like
to ride. So at the end of highlife, there is, there are some blank
(43:06):
pages because again, I haven'tcornered the market on wisdom. I
haven't cornered the market onlife stories. You've got your own.
So there are blank lined pagesfor you to write your own stories.
And what was I going to tellyou about that? I don't know. It
went away. What were we saying?
We were talking about BillyJoel and the art of saying forgiveness
(43:28):
and to forgive yourself,forgive your neighbor, forgive something
so that you can let it go andkind of move forward.
Yes. And so I, I have beenright. Thank you. That was a great
prompt to this almost 74 yearold brain. So I have been right,
right. Putting writing promptsup on my website, which is my name,
(43:49):
Lori Kleiner. Eckerd.com I'vebeen putting writing prompts up on
my website. One set of writingprompts a week. That'll happen for
the 36 weeks that there arestories in high on life. And so I
just am doing this one aboutBilly Joel is the one that's going
to post tomorrow, I think atnoon. And I suggest that you write
(44:16):
yourself a letter of forgivingyourself using the methodology that
I just told you. Yeah, yeah.And then keep that letter because
you know that that suspicionthat you're really rotten to the
core is going to pop back upagain sometime and go leave that
in your underwear drawer sothat you know it's there.
(44:37):
We'll find it every time,every day. See, and if you don't.
Yeah, yeah, that's. I thinkthat's a real look. I think we all,
we all sometimes have to, wecriticize ourselves as well. And
we, we also don't believe thatwe are good enough sometimes. We
don't believe that we're ableor can accomplish something that
we, we know on a different dayor another day we would have the
(45:00):
opposite effect of that. But Ithink we need to be reminded that
we have that opportunity toforgive ourselves and to, you know,
nobody's Perfect. Nobody'sperfect. Everybody. Everybody. You
could find flaws in everybody.I don't mean that in a judgmental
way. Way. We can all findflaws in ourselves. We can all find
flaws in everybody. Nobody isperfect. So I think that, you know,
(45:25):
sometimes we have to make surethat we understand that and that
no, you know, nobody'sexpecting us to be perfect. We're
just expected to be human andto be compassionate and to be grateful
and to be loving and to bekind and to be human. To be human.
So, yeah, I like that. Thatbrings us to one of my favorite ideas.
(45:46):
In your book, you write aboutthe power of small steps. We talked
about that earlier. I agreewith those small steps that got me
walking again, one step at atime. You know, you have to take
that first step, and in smallsteps kind of gives you a little
action. And you take thataction, you add another action to
(46:06):
it, repeat it over time. Itcan take extraordinary places. Tell
me about the philosophy ofthat to remind everybody. I know
we talked about it earlier,but as we close this out, please
help us remind us what thosesmall steps, the one building off
of the other can take us.
Oh, that. So that again,that's another story in High on Life
(46:29):
whose takeaway is a little bitplus a little bit equals a whole
lot. So I tell the story of afriend of mine who we graduated high
school together. Mike Kahn ishis name, and he was a trial lawyer
in St. Louis. I think he'sretired now, and the father of five
(46:50):
children, and he also is awriter. He's got more than a dozen
books out, and I think a dozenof the more than a dozen are mystery
involving Rachel Gold, I thinkher name is. She's the investigator.
And they're all set in St.Louis, so you get to go behind the
scenes at the ballpark and allthat kind of stuff. But anyway, in
(47:14):
the middle of being the fatherof five and a trial attorney, he
wrote all of these books. Andhe has said in interviews, how did
he do it? Well, every nightafter the kids went to bed, he wrote
one page. And he did thatseven days a week. And at the end
of the year, he had, oh, my365 pages, which is pretty much what
(47:39):
the average book is. And sothat is how this man wrote that many
books, being so completelybusy and occupied in life. What a
wonderful lesson for all ofus. He wrote one page a day, so that's
(48:01):
perfect. And then I tell myown story of all the cold calls I
made to line up up what turnedout to be over 200 speaking engagements
in, you know, in 11 states in10 years time. And it was like one
cold call at a time. And Iwould always say, you know, because
(48:23):
people always put you off whenyou call. You know, I never want
to be a past. So when may Ican call you back? And they say,
well call Tuesday. Okay, when?Tuesday at 2. So guess what? That's
when I called. I didn't callMonday at 3 or Wednesday at 4. Tuesday
at 2 is what you told me. Andthey would tell me they could set
a clock by me. And I calledback and I called back and I called
(48:43):
back and I got the gig. Sothat was the first one. Then I called
the next guy and I said I hadthis great speaking engagement for
so and so. And he wrote me arecommendation because of course
you asked for that. And thenI, you know, had to call him 25 times
too. But then I lined up thesecond. It was one by one by one
in the same way that I amwriting my 173rd blog for my website.
(49:08):
I wrote them one at a time. Itwas not hard. But you have to get
started.
A lot of us procrastinate toan extent that it creates our own
failure or our own inabilityto move forward. You have a website
and you have some books, booksand you have some quilts and you
(49:29):
have an Etsy store and youhave so many things I couldn't talk
about right here. So tell me,tell everybody how to get to you,
how to find you and kind ofwhat you have to offer.
Yeah, well, so if you see thatname, Lori Kleiner Eckard, if you
key that into a search engine,you're going to come up with so many
hits. But you can also do itas lore kleinereckert.com to go to
(49:51):
my website and it'll tell youabout all the books I've written
button it'll show you the sixmost current blogs. And I also, you
know, again doors open to meand I walk through them. So when
the, when the guru for thewebsite said get people to come to
your website. I'm a prolificreader of fiction. So I started writing
(50:15):
reviews of books again to getpeople to my website. So I have like
250 book reviews up, whichthen made me an affiliate marketer
for Amazon. So if you read myreview and buy the book, I earn 40
cents and then also to getpeople to my website, all my quilting
stuff. So that'll take you tomy Etsy shop, which is also lore
(50:38):
kleinereckert.etsy.com. sojust Lori Kleiner Eckard will take
you to Twitter. It'll takeexcuse me X. It'll take you to Facebook.
It'll take you to Instagram.I'm everywhere and I would love to
hear from anyone. By the sametoken, lorikleckert.com you can get
to me and I hope people do. Iwould like to encourage them on their
(51:01):
journey.
Well, I may make sure thateverything is there is on the website
and in the show notes thatthey can easily just Click Lori Kleiner
eckert.com and find you in aheartbeat. And again, they can find
the books there, they can findthe quilts there, you can find your
Etsy store there, they canfind your blog there, they can find
words of wisdom there. But Ineed some words of wisdom before
(51:24):
we leave, if it's okay. Isthis one more thing before you go
unwelcome? So for someonelistening right now who feels kind
of overwhelmed or stuck inlife, doesn't know where to go, unsure
where to begin, what's thefirst small step that you recommend
they take today?
Well, a recipe that I have forhappiness is, you know, do more of
(51:47):
what makes you happy. But thenI learned that sometimes people are
already doing too much. Theyhave too many balls in the air, so
their happiness needs to betaking one ball down. So I encourage
everybody to make one step,but it might be adding a new activity
(52:08):
or it might be subtractingone. And trust yourself. And even
if it's a sidestep or amisstep, tomorrow's another day.
Take another step. And I liketo say life is difficult, but you
can do it.
Brilliant words of wisdom. Ithink that we all should take those,
heed those words and kind ofmake sure and recognize ourselves
(52:32):
and the ability of us beingable to take that first step. So
brilliant words of wisdom.Thank you. Thank you, Lori. It's
been a great, great, a greatconversation. I really appreciate
you, what you bring to the world.
Thank you. Well, I appreciatewhat you bring to the world too.
So I encourage everyone to goto one more thing before you go.
Is that also dot com?
(52:52):
It is before you go.Podcast.com. yes. But. Yes. Thank
you. Thank you for that plug.I appreciate that. I think I love.
We both have one thing incommon for. Absolutely. Well, we
have a couple things incommon. Common. Three things in common.
We understand thatperseverance and fortitude and strength
move us forward in life andthat we can always redefine our purpose
(53:15):
at any time in life, that wejust have to take that first step
and recognize it like yousaid, and the fact that we both love
to inspire people and motivatepeople and educate people. So I have
a new friend.
Me too.
Yang, thank you very much. Iappreciate you being here. So Laurie
(53:36):
reminded us today that lifeisn't shaped by the big moments alone,
is shaped by the small ones.The stories we live, the lessons
we gather, and the courage ittakes to keep moving forward one
step at a time. Her work is areminder that reinvention is possible,
self acceptance is powerful,and the stories we tell could become
the stories that save us. Andmaybe, just maybe, your next chapter
(53:58):
is already waiting inside amoment you have haven't fully appreciated
yet. So that's a wrap fortoday's episode. I hope you found
inspiration, motivation and afew new perspectives to take with
you. If you enjoyed thisconversation, be sure to like subscribe
and follow us and stayconnected. You can find us on Apple,
Spotify or your favoritelistening platform. And you can head
(54:19):
over to YouTube and catch thefull video episode version of this
look at our pretty faces. Wehave a great day, have a great week
and thank you for being partof our community. Until next time,
this is Michael Hurst. And OneMore Thing before you Go.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of One more Thing before
you Go. Check out ourwebsite@beforeyougopodcast.com youm
(54:41):
can find us as well assubscribe to the program and rate
us on your favorite podcastlistening platform.
Hey, one more thing before yougo. What if the stories of your life,
the small moments, the quietlessons, the things you almost forgot,
were actually the roadmap tobecoming who you are and who you
were meant to be? What ifreinvention didn't require a crisis,
but simply the courage to payattention? Today we're talking to
someone who has spent morethan 30 years turning ordinary moments
(00:23):
into extraordinary wisdom andstitching those lessons into books,
speeches and columns, and evenquilts. Today we're going to answer
these questions and many, manymore and teach you how to improve
your life. I'm your host,Michael Hirsch. Welcome to one more
thing before you go. Today'sguest is a storyteller in every sense
(00:54):
of the word. Lori Kleiner asEckert is a motivational speaker,
an award winning columnist, anationally syndicated writer, a quilt
artist whose work weaves wordsand symbols into fabric, and the
author of five books,including her newest release, which
we're going to talk abouttoday. High on life. For more than
three decades, Lori has spokento over 250 audiences across 11 states,
(01:17):
sharing her slices of her lifewith one mission to help people see
that yes, life is difficult,but you can handle it. We have that
in common. Her new book, highon Life offers 36 stories, each paired
with one line, takeaways offull color illustration as a part
memoir, part motivation, andpart spiritual wink. Because hi chai
(01:39):
in Hebrew means life ispronounced hi. So, yes, this is a
book that literally is high onlife. Welcome to the show, Lori.
Well, thank you so much,Michael. I appreciate the fact that
you do this show. It's terrific.
Well, I am grateful thatyou're here because you have a lot
of wisdom to share. You got alot of journey to share, experience
(02:03):
to share. And I think we'reall going to learn something today.
Well, I like to. I alwayswould tell my audiences that I don't
think that I'm wise. I thinkthat everybody knows the same things
I know. And I think it wasRichard Bach who said that we tend
to teach best that which wemost need to learn. So I'm trying
(02:27):
to learn all these things,too. And, and I learned so much from
my audiences and from myreaders and so forth and from you.
So here I am. Let's be wise together.
Wise together. This. What amantra. That's a nice mantra. I think
we could use that mantra,can't we? I, I can't, like, start
with two big questions. Theykind of stood at the heart of your
work. Like how? Let me trythis one. The first one, how can
(02:51):
we. The small stories of ourlives, the ones we often overlook,
become powerful tools forreinvention, healing, and self acceptance?
I'm jumping right into this.
Oh, sure. So how does thathappen? I mean, we are what, a compilation
of everything that we've done.So I, what, often lack self esteem
(03:15):
and, you know, thinksomething's wrong with me. But then
a friend will usually suggestto me that I read one of my books
where I'm telling everybodyelse that they're wonderful just
the way they are so that Iwill feel that way about myself.
And when they stop me and makeme remember, I have to stop and think.
You know, really, I have fivebooks in print. I have spoken to,
(03:41):
you know, audiences in 11states. Dates. I have done a lot,
and I have to give myselfcredit for my accomplishments. So
those are my accomplishments.But, you know, like, the lady friend
I had breakfast with thismorning has all these kids and she's
got all these grandkids andshe writes thank you notes and she
writes, sends everyoneThanksgiving cards and Christmas
(04:04):
cards. These are wonderfulaccomplishments of staying in touch
with people. So we all haveour accomplishments and we have to
give ourselves credit for it.And. Yeah, so all of the small stuff
is really not small stuff.It's what's important.
I agree with you. I think thatsometimes we have to stop and, well,
the old cliche stop and smellthe roses, kind of think about, you
(04:25):
know, what's going on aroundus, who's in our lives, who we can
be grateful for, what we canbe grateful for, and. And, you know,
think of ourselves too,because we have to take care of ourselves
before we can take care ofsomebody else.
Definitely. One of the storiesin High on life is called 30 Reasons
to Be Grateful. At mygranddaughter's soccer game, and
(04:48):
one of the reasons was thatsome other grandma had her shirt
on inside out, but it wasn't me.
You know, I was a good name, right?
Yeah. And the one linetakeaway from the story is that there's
always something to begrateful for. So this doesn't wipe
out the fact that there areoften things to be sad about and
(05:09):
discouraged about anddepressed. Depressed about. But.
But there's always somethingto be grateful for.
That's a fact. I've learnedthat in my personal life as well
as my professional life, youcould always be grateful for the
little things. And. And peoplestop. People forget. It's a lot of
little things that make up abig thing.
Oh. Oh, definitely. So. Well,I'm really jumping right in. So another
(05:34):
of the Stories in High on Lifeis how to reinvent yourself. And
this is just a really majortopic for me. But my method, if you
want to talk about it later,has two parts to it. One is having
a healthy routine and theother is taking a step a day towards
(05:55):
your new life. But thosesteps, Michael, can be teeny tiny
steps. And sometimes they'remissteps and sometimes there's sidesteps,
but you just keep stepping.And so what is it? The journey of
a thousand miles starts withthe first step or whatever. You know,
all of that just adds up. Andso I heard another one of your podcasts
(06:19):
where you were wondering ifyou should say how old you are. Well,
I'm going to be 74 years old,so I'm just days away from it. And.
But all of those things, allof those teeny tiny steps, I mean,
I did raise three kids andthey're all successful, fully launched,
and I do have a house that isnot tumbling down around me. All
(06:43):
of these teeny tiny steps allgo together to make who I. Make me
who I am.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Athousand percent. First, happy early
birthday.
Thank you. I share my withAbraham Lincoln. So it'll be on Thursday
the 12th. Yeah.
So every year you get aNational Day.
(07:04):
I do. And some years I getreally lucky and my seventh grade
boyfriend will send me anemail I said saying, I think your
birthday is with AbrahamLincoln. You know, so I hear from
Randy, oh, every three, four years.
Again, the little things.Right? Little things, little things.
(07:25):
No, I'm proud of my age,actually. If you look at the line
I've been doing genealogicalresearch in, not to go off subject,
but it's interesting when yougo back and look at your generations.
And I go back like fourgenerations in my line and thus far
I'm the oldest male individualto date. Everybody else was gone
(07:46):
at like, my father died at 39,his father 27. The one before that
43, 46. So yeah, I'm gratefulevery day. Every day I get out of
bed, I'm grateful.
That's great.
That really works. Yeah, youknow, it's. We all have journeys
in life and I think, you know,let's help everybody understand,
like, what does it really meanto believe that life is difficult
(08:09):
but you can handle it. They'veheard my story and now let's talk
a little bit about your stories.
Well, really with the. I'mhappy to tell you my whole journey
really started with divorceand the need to reinvent myself from
being a full time mom and soforth, but about life Being difficult.
(08:35):
I always think of going, itwas my youngest daughter Lisa's first
day as a senior at the highschool. She's now 42 or 3 years old.
I always have to stop and dothe math. But I was a parent helper
serving donuts and juice tothe kids. And I just looked around,
(08:56):
around that room. I didn'tknow many of the kids. I mean, I
knew my daughter's friends,but it was a big school so I didn't
know everyone. But I'm lookingaround and I'm thinking, I bet that
guy is a little bit sadbecause his face broke out. And I
bet this guy's a little bitsad or gal because her hair isn't
perfect today. Or look at, youknow, or you know, this one over
(09:17):
here might feel like anoutcast. I really wasn't picking
on them. I was justidentifying that they may have problems
such as feeling like anoutcast, such as problems at home,
such as their parents just gotno noticed, you know, said they were
going to get divorced or maybesomething happened that was good
but shocking, like the familywas going to have a new baby. And
here's a high school kiddoesn't want to have a new baby in
(09:38):
their family. So I'm lookingat all these kids eating donuts and
orange juice and thinking thata vast majority of them are probably
in pain over something. Notanything critical, not anything they're
not going to live through. ButI just wanted to hug them all and
I wanted to say, which I do,life is difficult, but you can handle
it. And so. And then you haveto give yourself credit credit for
(10:00):
handling it. You know, youhave a bowl of ice cream tonight
in honor of having handled it.But you, you can do it. I'm sure
you can do it. And for my ownjourney. So I'm getting to the point
now where, where mygirlfriends are starting to lose
husbands, you know, so we'rein 70s and it's odd to me because
(10:24):
I've been on my own for solong and that they really don't realize
that their journey has. Theyknew they had a partner, but how
much that partner participatedor I don't even know what to say.
My one friend. So I'm in theMidwest and when it gets cold, the
(10:47):
tire light goes on on mydashboard to say the tires low when
it's too cold outside. And soI said to my friend, I took the car
to the dealership to have airadded. And she said to the dealership,
we just go to the gas stationand fill the tires. And I said, well,
I don't know how to do that.And she said, well, she doesn't either,
(11:09):
but her husband does. So, youknow, so my journey on my own. So
I have to give myself credit.I figured out you can go to the dealership
and they will fill your tiresfor you, you know. So anyway, the
journey. I have. I have beenjourneying for a long time. You have
to tell you one. Well, so we.We've just kind of touched on things
(11:32):
without really going there.But I make quilts with words and
symbols pieced into thedesign. And I haven't made this quilt
yet, but I want to. And theexpression the joy is in the journey.
That's literal. The wordjourney is Jo at the beginning and
why at the end is thatastounding? I think that that is
(11:56):
just. That's telling us somuch. That's a nod from the universe
that to find the joy in whatwe're doing right now.
I believe you're. I agree withthat. I agree with that. And those
little, those littleaccomplishments, those little things
that you end up doing on yourown. I applaud you for recognizing
(12:16):
that it is a positive step ofthe forward in a forward way. And
my mother, I grew up withpretty much a single mother. She
raised three kids and in the70s and 80s. And I know how difficult
it is for a woman, especiallyduring that time. As you know, you
couldn't even have a checkingaccount until 1974. And an interview
(12:41):
with a young woman whosegrandmother was. Was the congressman,
one of the first women inCongress, who then pushed that through
Congress to change that law sothat women can have a checking account
and buy property and didn'thave to have a husband or a father
or a brother co sign for themfor stuff. So I applaud your journey
(13:03):
in regard to reinventionbecause sometimes people don't do
that. They think I've losteverything. I don't know what to
do and I don't know where to go.
Yeah. Well, I have to saythough, on. So thank you. I appreciate
that. Pat on the back and Ineed it. We all do. But on the topic
of recreating yourself in thejourney, I think one thing that makes
(13:26):
it easier possibly to do is torealize that we have all reinvented
ourselves dozens of timesthat. But that there are happy reinventions
when we get the collegedegree, when we get married, when.
And we have a child. These arepositive reinventions. But you don't
(13:48):
be fooled. You have reinventedyourself. And so the Same skills
that you use in learning howto be a college graduate, you know,
or a parent you can put to usein. In the sadder reinventions that,
you know, when you get fired,when you flunk a class, when you
get divorced, when you have anempty nest, you know, when you lose
(14:09):
your spouse or you get a badhealth diagnosis. You've been through
some of these, you know, andyou are reinventing yourself, but
you have lots of skillsbecause you have done it so many
times. They like to tell thestory of a Broadway musical called
Avenue Q. And the opening lineis, a guy comes out on stage waving
(14:31):
a piece of paper. I just gotmy bachelor's degree in English.
And the second line is, whatdo you do with a bachelor's degree
in English? No. So that was ahappy reinvention. But what. What
comes next?
Exactly. Exactly. We have totake. And that goes back to the step
(14:52):
thing, as you mentionedearlier. You have to take that first
step and move yourselfforward. You spend more than 30 years
doing that and turning yourlife into lessons for others through
books and speeches and columnsand the quotes that you just talked
about. Where did that callingcome from? In regard to that we mentioned
(15:13):
before we started, and peopleknow that from my show, my desire
was to motivate, educate, andinspire people from my journey itself.
And that life doesn't stopjust like you do. I know that's part
of your message and that lifedoesn't stop when life changes and
that you can move it forward.Kind of what inspired you to take
(15:35):
your experiences and to helpshare those.
Yeah, I'll say two things outloud so you can help me if I lose
my train of thought. One isthat I have always been a sounding
board for people, and theother is that I got divorced, so
help me if I lose my train ofthought. So I got divorced. So I
wasn't doing anything foranybody else. I was trying to get
(15:56):
a paid profession, and Ithought that I would turn my hobby
of quilt making into a paidprofession. So if you're a quilter,
you would know that there arequilt shows and quilt contests and
quilt everything all over thecountry, indeed, all over the world,
all the time. And I thoughtthat I would market myself to that
(16:17):
group as a quilt lecturer. ButI didn't have confidence in myself
artistically. I knew I was agreat quilt technician, so I was
giving myself credit for whatI knew. So this means that if I had
fabric with Christmas trees init, the Christmas trees all stood
up. Right. None of them wouldbe lying on their Side or if I made
(16:37):
stars, I didn't lop off thepoints. I had pointy edges on those
stars. So I was a good quilttechnician, but I wasn't sure I was
a good quilt artist. And thereare lots of amazing quilt artists
out there, so I needed to beable to compete. And so I thought,
well, I'll make quilts withwords pieced into the design. So
no one else was doing that.And then I gave myself a really stiff
(17:01):
goal. I was going to make onequilt every two weeks so that at
the end of six months, I have12 quilts and I could take my show
on the road. And, and I was.I'm a tall woman, 5 foot 7, but I'm
kind of scrawny. So I didn'tthink I could make bed sized quilts.
I was making wall hangingsbecause how could I schlep 12 bed
(17:24):
sized quilts around thecountry with me? So I was making
these wall hangings with wordspieced into the design and I just
had whatever I needed to sayon the quilt. So, you know, and so
one said bloom and one saidsoar. And one said, come as you are,
you're lovely. Another onesays, I pledge allegiance to me.
So anyway, all of those quiltswork together to tell one story of
(17:50):
the journey towards selfacceptance. And I realized that I
didn't have to just take thatmessage to quilt people, that I could
take it to a general audience.And indeed, quilters would pay. This
is in the mid-90s. You know,they pay like $75 for a program.
But if I called myself amotivational speaker, I could go
(18:12):
to other groups. And so that'swho I marketed myself to. I marketed
myself to everything fromPTAs, ladies church groups, to Proctor
and Gamble. And I went andtold the story about, you know, the
journey, the journey, here wego again, towards self acceptance
and love. So that was myimpetus, was to make an income. But
(18:34):
from there, the reason that itworked out so well for me is that
I've always been everyone'scheerleader. I have had so many people
when I was a kid, when I wasin high school, so many people called
me and cried on my shoulder.And sometimes I would get off the
(18:54):
phone crying myself. And mydad said to me, if you can't talk
on the phone and get offwithout crying, then you're not allowed
to talk on the phone anymore.So that's just who I am. I'm the.
I listen, I give advice.Again, not rocket science, you know,
but I give advice and I Giveencouragement. You can do it. And,
(19:17):
oh, well, look what justhappened. You just called me, you
reached out for help. Well,look at you. Aren't you doing great?
You know, and I found all thethings to be grateful for in, you
know, what they were tellingme. And so that then did become the
journey to make a difference.I always felt that was so necessary
(19:42):
that, you know, that all of mytalents were God's gift to me, but
what was I going to do withthose talents? And yeah, so that
got me going. And may Icontinue on that story of being a
motivational speaker and aquilter for a minute?
(20:02):
Absolutely. Because I thinkthat. I think it. What I like about
you is that, you know, you hadsaid in some of the interviews that
I have seen you in is thatevery story you share is an invitation
for someone to see themselvesmore clearly. And. And I think that's.
You kind of embraced that, Ithink, throughout your speaking career
and, and what you bring topeople, especially in the quilts,
I think it's a brilliant wayof doing that. So, yes, please continue.
(20:25):
Well, so here I am themotivational speaker, speaking to
all kinds of groups. And, oh,they liked me and they wanted me
to come back, but I only hadone program and I had, of course,
sold. I had written it up asan adult picture book, you know,
short on words, full ofpictures. So my first book was an
(20:47):
adult picture book and I soldit to Pelican Publishing Company.
And so then that gave mecredentials as well as a published
author. But people wantedanother lecture from me, so I created
a second series of quilts andPelican Publishing Co. Published
another book of mine, and nowI had another lecture. But the odd
(21:09):
thing with the second book isthat I wrote a thousand word essay
to go with each quilt. So theidea of a picture and a thousand
words, that was what I wasgoing for. And so it was after I
got my second book publishedthat I realized I like to write.
How crazy is that? So I thinkthat that's also something that people
(21:35):
should. Could. Might learnfrom me is that I really didn't have
a game plan. I just took everyopportunity that offered itself to
me, and it's taken me far. Sothen I like writing, so I started
to write a Slice of Lifecolumn. I was in my 40s at that time,
(21:58):
divorced, and I wrote aboutbeing single in midlife. And I syndicated
that to little newspapersacross the country. And then I compiled
a year's worth of thosecolumns. And that became my third
book, which has a name thatpeople Buy the book for the name.
(22:20):
There is, I think, except onthe secondary market. I think I have
four more copies of this book.Otherwise it's sold out after only
20 years. But it's. I Need aMan's Pants to Wash. Isn't that a
funny story?
Yeah, I was going to ask youabout that. I thought, what an interesting
(22:41):
title.
And people love the name.Yeah, well, so there's a story behind
that. There's a story behindeverything. Everybody has a hundred
stories, a thousand stories, amillion stories. And I encourage
you to write them down. Highon Life has a companion piece of
a blank journal, so you canwrite your own stories, by the way.
(23:02):
But anyway, my grandma, withwhom I was very close, my bubby,
when my grandpa died, I saidto her, you know, Bob, don't you
want to get remarried again?And she said, I need a man's pants
to wash. So she was verycertain she wasn't going there. But
I'm 42 years old and divorcedand I'm not really sure, so I call.
(23:24):
So I called the book, whichwas Slice of Life Stories about Being
Single in Midlife. I Need aMan's Pants to Wash. But there's
no punctuation. There's notthis. None dark exclamation point
or period. It was. Let'sexplore this issue. So that's. That's
what I did.
That's what you did. That's.That's brilliant, actually. That's
(23:44):
really brilliant. Yeah, Ithink. I think it reminds me some
stories that I told you aboutRichie, who used to work for me.
Very good friend. And, andkind of reminds me of some of the
stories that he and his wifehad shared with me in regard to something
similar to that with hismother. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty
cool. I think. You know, it.It. What I'm. What I'm seeing kind
(24:08):
of a pattern of, is thatyou're kind of a cheerleader for
someone who reminds peoplethat life is hard, but you know,
you're capable in that you cando it, you can achieve it. And I
think that you learn thatphilosophy from your own journey,
right?
Definitely. I mean, really,when I'm down sincerely, people suggest
(24:32):
to me that I read my own books.
Take your own advice, your own advice.
And I am really forced toremember the scads of things that
I have that I haveaccomplished and in the early days
of. Again, it's just so funnyto me that all of this kind of just
(24:55):
happened willy nilly for mejust by taking the next step. But
after writing that third book,which was a compilation of 52 columns
about being single in midlife.I actually wrote a book. I had been
involved with a man who wecalled Big Irv. That. That tells
(25:17):
you a lot about him rightthere. And when Big Irv died, you
know, that was. I had toreinvent myself. And so I did by
having a healthy routine,which is what I tell people to do,
and. And by taking one step aday in the new direction for me that
was writing. And so then hereI've got this fourth book, which
(25:41):
at that point, PelicanPublishing company wasn't publishing
the kind of stuff I write, sothey didn't want to publish it, though
they had published the firstthree, and I couldn't find a publisher.
Another one of your guests hadtalked about what a journey that
is, and that's a wild ride.But anyway, so I self published it.
And then. And then I thought Iwas again, like, you know, you get
(26:05):
married, you think you'redone, but now, now you have a marriage
or you have a baby and youthink you're done, but no, now you
have to raise it. So I thoughtI was done with that when I wrote
that fourth book. And instead,my publishing guru told me that I
needed a website, so I createda website. And then the website guru
told me that I needed to bringpeople to my website regularly so
(26:29):
that they would see the book.And so he said, you have to start
writing a blog. It's like whatI wrote. Well, I thought it was done
writing, so I started writingtwo blogs a month. I am currently
writing blog number 173. Sothat's a lot of years of writing
blogs.
Well done.
(26:49):
Yeah. And lo and behold, Highon Life is a compilation. It was
like maybe a dozen newsstories, but two dozen that had already
been published on my website.So, you see, I have to give myself
credit for all of this, don'tI? I mean, I could say it was all
(27:10):
willy nilly. There was nogrand plan. It just happened. It
did just happen, but I made ithappen. And in those early days of
having the website, I believethat I couldn't just ask people to
buy my book. I had to givethem something. So daily I posted,
if you go on my Instagram andscroll way, way, way, way, way, way,
(27:34):
way, way back, you're gonnasee daily motivational messages.
Just take one step forward,you know?
Exactly.
You know, take time to spellthe roses along the way. If it rains,
dance in the puddles, youknow, on and on and on and on. But
that is. That is me. That'sthe kind of cheerleader that I am.
(27:58):
That's a brilliant way toapproach life because I've seen too
many people that whensomething has forced them to change,
then whatever circumstancesthey're in, that force that change,
they sit back and go, I don'tknow what the heck to do. And I'm
just going to sit here andthink about it for a while. And then
they get depressed and theyget angry and they get resentful
(28:19):
and things go down a darkroad. So yeah, I think it's amazing
that you were able to takeeach time that you were presented
with something that was a lifechanging opportunity, you recognized
it, you grasped it.
Well, as I often say, what'splan B? You know, so plan B, I just
(28:39):
is to sit on the sofa. But inthe formalized version, in high on
life, when I talk aboutpersonal reinvention. So I've hinted
at it, but let's say it in somany words is that I give you a two
step process for personalreinvention. Why is it so easy? Because
often when you're reinventingyourself, you're in bad emotional
(29:02):
straits and you just don'twant to get off the sofa. So I'm
gonna make it really easy. Butof course this works for those happy
reinventions as well. So stepnumber one is that you have to have
a healthy daily routine. Sothat's real personal. It's what do
you do when you're flying highand things are going well for you?
(29:23):
What are the things that younaturally do? I bet you brush your
teeth every morning, I bet youtake a shower every night. I bet
you get dressed, I bet you goplaces. So you have to have a healthy
routine. For me, that isexercise and eating right and worrying
about my sleep hygiene and allthat kind of stuff. But it's whatever
is your, whatever is yournatural routine for when life is
(29:46):
going well. That's what youhave to do every day. So that's step
number one. And step numbertwo is to take a step, even if it's
teeny tiny. Teeny tiny isfine. But I encourage you to have
an accountability log so thatyou write down today's date and the
action that you took. And ifyou are in a happy reinvention, the
(30:09):
guy from Avenue Q with the newdegree in English, maybe you can
set a timer for 10 minutes anddo 10 minutes worth of stuff again.
I still want you to write itdown in your accountability log that
you did it, but maybe you canmake three phone calls or send four
emails or Whatever. In thedirection of your new life. And it's
(30:31):
just so surprising to me, evenwhen you're in a bad reinvention
that just really five, six,seven days into it, you're starting
to feel better. And the oneexample that I use is empty nest
syndrome. So when my lastchild went off to college, I really,
I could feel the weight of thesilence in the house. It had me pinned
(30:57):
to the sofa. And so I used mymethod, and I bought myself a spiral
notebook to write anaccountability log. And the first
day I contacted, I don'tremember if I, I must have done it
via email. I went to volunteermatch.com so it's all the volunteer
activities in your area. And Isigned up to be a volunteer for the
(31:21):
March of Dimes. And I, youknow, each day I did something, and
lo and behold, after five orsix days, I least had a place, a
meaningful place to go onTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever.
And it was. That's alifesaver. That's absolutely a lifesaver.
Yep, yep, yep. I, I, for sixmonths after I retired, I was calling
(31:44):
in stuff, and I'd say, call upand say, this is retired sergeant.
Blah, blah, blah, this isgoing on. This is going on. And then
the cops would show up andpull them over, do whatever they
need to do. And pretty soonthey kept going, sarge, we got this.
Just go home and relax. Putyour feet up. Because I was making
(32:05):
so many calls, because I, Ijust didn't know what to do with
myself, you know, I, I was acop. That's what I was. That's what
I did. And all of a sudden itstopped. So I'd see something, and
I kind of go, okay, I gottacall that in. Oh, okay, I gotta call
that in. I mean, obviously Ihad a lot of support from a colleague,
my family as well, mycolleagues. But I can relate to that
(32:25):
statement. You, you get stuckin a, in something, you have to kind
of break that routine beforeyou can throw yourself into something
new. But you have to recognizeit or somebody needs to kind of nudge
you a little bit in thatdirection and say, like I say, go
home, put your feet up, relax.We got this kind of thing. I find
(32:47):
the interesting, it's aninteresting title in this book. When
I first looked at it, I thinkof chai, like chai tea, right? I
drink Tai chi all the time. Ido it when I, When I meditate. I
love having a cup of tai chiwhen I'm a meditator, after I meditate.
So in the Hebrew Form. It'shigh. Right. High on life, 36 slices
of wisdom. It's a blend from.From what I can read so far, you
(33:12):
know, it's a blend of humorand spirituality and the Jewish culture
and everyday insightfullisteners who haven't seen it yet,
kind of. What inspired that inparticular and to take it from that
approach.
What inspired the title or.
Yeah, that title and thatapproach to go into it that way?
(33:36):
Well, the approach of 36Little Stories is because that's
what my blog is. So I didn'treally write this book. You know,
I wrote 12 news stories, butthey were stories that I would like
what I was writing, you know,previously. And so it was just. Okay,
(33:57):
let's look at. I don'tremember how many stories existed
at that time. 120, let's say.Let's look at the pick, the ones
that are evergreen because,you know, I talked about the pandemic
and that's come and gone, youknow, surprisingly. But I took the
most evergreen. So, you know,three places to find friends or,
(34:20):
you know, kinds of things thatare important to talk about every
now and again. So that's howthe format came around to be 36 stories.
Yeah. High on Life came aboutbecause the book, when I submitted
it to Bancroft Press, who's mypublisher, it was only 18 stories
(34:43):
because 18 is a mysticalnumber in Hebrew. 18, and it's called
hai or, you know, thedifference between Hanukkah and Hanukkah?
It's the same thing. Are yougoing to say it ch. Or you're going
to say it H. So hi. Or hi. Sowhen I submitted it to the publisher,
(35:05):
I submitted 18 stories. So itwas 18 stories on life. I liked the
fact that people. Because Ithink, though it does have a Jewish
flavor. Some of the storiestalk about Judaism, but most of them
not. But I like that it hintsat this chai tea because like you
(35:27):
said, when you meditate orwhen you're having a quiet moment
or for me to hold a cup ofsomething hot when it's cold here
in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I likethat, that people can think that
we're talking about chai teabecause we. Because this is a book
of comfort. I'm hoping you'recomforted reading this. You know,
I really do. I hope.
(35:49):
Yeah. That's brilliant.
Well. And how we got to 36stories is that the publisher, Bruce
Borch, said he was loathe topublish such a short book as 18 stories.
He said, you think you couldmake 36? I said, I can have it. To
you tomorrow, you know, so.
Oh, that's funny how ithappened. And he used the word loathe.
(36:12):
That means I gotta. I gottaadd some more. That's okay. You talk
about, like, self acceptancefor forgiveness, gratitude, personal
reinvention, and the magic ofone plus one adding up over time.
Can we. We talk about selfacceptance in regard to what you.
What you bring to that?
Oh, to self acceptance. Well,I have to take you to a couple of
(36:37):
the quilts. One of them says.Let's see, it says.
It says something.
What does that quilt say? Itsays, proud to be a strange bird.
And another one says, dare tobe different. So these are me. So
in the proud to be a strangebird, there are, I think, seven red
(37:01):
birds facing west, and I'm thegreen bird facing east. Or maybe
it's reverse. But anyway, I'mthe green bird and everyone else
is red. In the dare to bedifferent, there are three gorgeous
butterflies. In that case,they definitely are flying west,
while I'm blue flying in theother direction. So this has just
(37:22):
always been me. So here I amat midlife, and my friends are all
going by twosies onto the ark,and I'm divorced. So I've always
been different. So my message,again, I'm teaching what I most need
to learn is that you'rebeautiful just the way you are. So,
(37:45):
okay, so I'm the green bird,and everyone else. Almost everyone
else is red. And okay, I'm theblue butterfly. When most are orange,
it's okay. I'm fine just theway I am. So that's where that is.
And if anybody looks throughmy older books. So the first two
books with this ring and getquiet and listen are illustrated
(38:11):
with quilts. And so they'readult picture books. But if you look
at them, many of the quiltsare oddly shaped. They're not squares
or rectangles like most quiltswould be. Excuse me. Let me take
a sip of water. So that wasreflecting me. I'm oddly shaped.
(38:35):
I've always been oddly shaped.But of course, all the quilts are
beautiful. Even if I madethem, they are. Technically, they're
perfect. And there got to be atime where I made a quilt that was
so oddly shaped that therewere about a dozen different corners
you had to turn in order toput the binding on it. And to turn
(39:00):
a corner when you put bindingon is a challenge. And I thought
to myself, can you be donebeing so oddly shaped? And so isn't
that wonderful that lifesuggested that to me? You know, so
put it all Together in thesame way that I have to give myself
(39:21):
credit for my accomplishments,I have to give myself credit for
being okay as I am. And, youknow, plenty strange ash my kids.
I break out in song every nowand again and all kinds of embarrassing
things.
You know, that's life. That'slike Bill Frank Sinatra song. That's
(39:42):
life.
That's life. Yes, exactly.
Which brings me to Billy Joel.
Oh, Billy Joel.
Billy Joel. You use his songBig Shot, don't you?
I do. So I went to a BillyJoel concert, and everybody knew
every word of that song andshouted it along with him. And I
(40:06):
forget what magazine called ithis most. They used a different word,
ticked off song of his career.And so I happen to have been there.
This concert occurred right atthe Jewish holiday that we are dealing
(40:27):
with forgiveness. And itoccurred to me that Billy Joel is
earning royalties from hisanger. I'm not.
If we could do that, I'd bereally, really, really rich.
There's really, really noreason to carry this anger. So with
(40:50):
the Jewish holiday of YomKippur, we are supposed to forgive
everybody. But an interestingthing is. Oh. Because God forgives
everybody. So if you can'tforgive your neighbor, then you're
holding your neighbor tohigher standards than God is holding
them. So that's the nature ofthat. Yeah. But by the same token,
(41:16):
God forgives you also for yourfailings, for what you did wrong.
And again, then you can't bemad at yourself or whatever you're
mad at yourself for, becauseyou're holding yourself as you're.
You're. You know, you're usinga higher than God would use. So I
love that. I just love that.So, yes. So that's how Billy Joel
(41:38):
came into the book. I say thatthe book has 36 stories from everything
from belly fat to Billy Joel,Belly fat to Billy Joel.
That's a great marketing tool, right?
Yes. Isn't that great? Butit's true. And the one about belly
fat was I went to a woman'swellness event, and we had to write
(42:00):
a love letter to some part ofour body. So I wrote it to my belly
that I don't love becauseit's. It's kind of a pouchy belly,
even though I'm tall, youknow? And. And I thanked it because
part of the reason it's kindof flabby is because it had those
three amazing children who Iso adore. So on behalf of Scott,
(42:23):
on behalf of Shayna, on behalfof Lisa, I thank you. And then I
listed the 10 grandchildrenthat have come from those three.
And it's like, well, of courseyour belly is big. Look what it produced,
you know, and so, so that'sself acceptance, isn't it?
Yeah, that's a brilliant wayof doing that. I think now every
(42:44):
time I hear a big shot, everytime I hear bojo, that's what I'm
going to think about. What canI, what can I. Yeah, yeah.
You know, what happy load canyou put down? Because it is a heavy
load to carry or whatever. SoI am posting for people who like
to ride. So at the end of highlife, there is, there are some blank
(43:06):
pages because again, I haven'tcornered the market on wisdom. I
haven't cornered the market onlife stories. You've got your own.
So there are blank lined pagesfor you to write your own stories.
And what was I going to tellyou about that? I don't know. It
went away. What were we saying?
We were talking about BillyJoel and the art of saying forgiveness
(43:28):
and to forgive yourself,forgive your neighbor, forgive something
so that you can let it go andkind of move forward.
Yes. And so I, I have beenright. Thank you. That was a great
prompt to this almost 74 yearold brain. So I have been right,
right. Putting writing promptsup on my website, which is my name,
(43:49):
Lori Kleiner. Eckerd.com I'vebeen putting writing prompts up on
my website. One set of writingprompts a week. That'll happen for
the 36 weeks that there arestories in high on life. And so I
just am doing this one aboutBilly Joel is the one that's going
to post tomorrow, I think atnoon. And I suggest that you write
(44:16):
yourself a letter of forgivingyourself using the methodology that
I just told you. Yeah, yeah.And then keep that letter because
you know that that suspicionthat you're really rotten to the
core is going to pop back upagain sometime and go leave that
in your underwear drawer sothat you know it's there.
(44:37):
We'll find it every time,every day. See, and if you don't.
Yeah, yeah, that's. I thinkthat's a real look. I think we all,
we all sometimes have to, wecriticize ourselves as well. And
we, we also don't believe thatwe are good enough sometimes. We
don't believe that we're ableor can accomplish something that
we, we know on a different dayor another day we would have the
(45:00):
opposite effect of that. But Ithink we need to be reminded that
we have that opportunity toforgive ourselves and to, you know,
nobody's Perfect. Nobody'sperfect. Everybody. Everybody. You
could find flaws in everybody.I don't mean that in a judgmental
way. Way. We can all findflaws in ourselves. We can all find
flaws in everybody. Nobody isperfect. So I think that, you know,
(45:25):
sometimes we have to make surethat we understand that and that
no, you know, nobody'sexpecting us to be perfect. We're
just expected to be human andto be compassionate and to be grateful
and to be loving and to bekind and to be human. To be human.
So, yeah, I like that. Thatbrings us to one of my favorite ideas.
(45:46):
In your book, you write aboutthe power of small steps. We talked
about that earlier. I agreewith those small steps that got me
walking again, one step at atime. You know, you have to take
that first step, and in smallsteps kind of gives you a little
action. And you take thataction, you add another action to
(46:06):
it, repeat it over time. Itcan take extraordinary places. Tell
me about the philosophy ofthat to remind everybody. I know
we talked about it earlier,but as we close this out, please
help us remind us what thosesmall steps, the one building off
of the other can take us.
Oh, that. So that again,that's another story in High on Life
(46:29):
whose takeaway is a little bitplus a little bit equals a whole
lot. So I tell the story of afriend of mine who we graduated high
school together. Mike Kahn ishis name, and he was a trial lawyer
in St. Louis. I think he'sretired now, and the father of five
(46:50):
children, and he also is awriter. He's got more than a dozen
books out, and I think a dozenof the more than a dozen are mystery
involving Rachel Gold, I thinkher name is. She's the investigator.
And they're all set in St.Louis, so you get to go behind the
scenes at the ballpark and allthat kind of stuff. But anyway, in
(47:14):
the middle of being the fatherof five and a trial attorney, he
wrote all of these books. Andhe has said in interviews, how did
he do it? Well, every nightafter the kids went to bed, he wrote
one page. And he did thatseven days a week. And at the end
of the year, he had, oh, my365 pages, which is pretty much what
(47:39):
the average book is. And sothat is how this man wrote that many
books, being so completelybusy and occupied in life. What a
wonderful lesson for all ofus. He wrote one page a day, so that's
(48:01):
perfect. And then I tell myown story of all the cold calls I
made to line up up what turnedout to be over 200 speaking engagements
in, you know, in 11 states in10 years time. And it was like one
cold call at a time. And Iwould always say, you know, because
(48:23):
people always put you off whenyou call. You know, I never want
to be a past. So when may Ican call you back? And they say,
well call Tuesday. Okay, when?Tuesday at 2. So guess what? That's
when I called. I didn't callMonday at 3 or Wednesday at 4. Tuesday
at 2 is what you told me. Andthey would tell me they could set
a clock by me. And I calledback and I called back and I called
(48:43):
back and I got the gig. Sothat was the first one. Then I called
the next guy and I said I hadthis great speaking engagement for
so and so. And he wrote me arecommendation because of course
you asked for that. And thenI, you know, had to call him 25 times
too. But then I lined up thesecond. It was one by one by one
in the same way that I amwriting my 173rd blog for my website.
(49:08):
I wrote them one at a time. Itwas not hard. But you have to get
started.
A lot of us procrastinate toan extent that it creates our own
failure or our own inabilityto move forward. You have a website
and you have some books, booksand you have some quilts and you
(49:29):
have an Etsy store and youhave so many things I couldn't talk
about right here. So tell me,tell everybody how to get to you,
how to find you and kind ofwhat you have to offer.
Yeah, well, so if you see thatname, Lori Kleiner Eckard, if you
key that into a search engine,you're going to come up with so many
hits. But you can also do itas lore kleinereckert.com to go to
(49:51):
my website and it'll tell youabout all the books I've written
button it'll show you the sixmost current blogs. And I also, you
know, again doors open to meand I walk through them. So when
the, when the guru for thewebsite said get people to come to
your website. I'm a prolificreader of fiction. So I started writing
(50:15):
reviews of books again to getpeople to my website. So I have like
250 book reviews up, whichthen made me an affiliate marketer
for Amazon. So if you read myreview and buy the book, I earn 40
cents and then also to getpeople to my website, all my quilting
stuff. So that'll take you tomy Etsy shop, which is also lore
(50:38):
kleinereckert.etsy.com. sojust Lori Kleiner Eckard will take
you to Twitter. It'll takeexcuse me X. It'll take you to Facebook.
It'll take you to Instagram.I'm everywhere and I would love to
hear from anyone. By the sametoken, lorikleckert.com you can get
to me and I hope people do. Iwould like to encourage them on their
(51:01):
journey.
Well, I may make sure thateverything is there is on the website
and in the show notes thatthey can easily just Click Lori Kleiner
eckert.com and find you in aheartbeat. And again, they can find
the books there, they can findthe quilts there, you can find your
Etsy store there, they canfind your blog there, they can find
words of wisdom there. But Ineed some words of wisdom before
(51:24):
we leave, if it's okay. Isthis one more thing before you go
unwelcome? So for someonelistening right now who feels kind
of overwhelmed or stuck inlife, doesn't know where to go, unsure
where to begin, what's thefirst small step that you recommend
they take today?
Well, a recipe that I have forhappiness is, you know, do more of
(51:47):
what makes you happy. But thenI learned that sometimes people are
already doing too much. Theyhave too many balls in the air, so
their happiness needs to betaking one ball down. So I encourage
everybody to make one step,but it might be adding a new activity
(52:08):
or it might be subtractingone. And trust yourself. And even
if it's a sidestep or amisstep, tomorrow's another day.
Take another step. And I liketo say life is difficult, but you
can do it.
Brilliant words of wisdom. Ithink that we all should take those,
heed those words and kind ofmake sure and recognize ourselves
(52:32):
and the ability of us beingable to take that first step. So
brilliant words of wisdom.Thank you. Thank you, Lori. It's
been a great, great, a greatconversation. I really appreciate
you, what you bring to the world.
Thank you. Well, I appreciatewhat you bring to the world too.
So I encourage everyone to goto one more thing before you go.
Is that also dot com?
(52:52):
It is before you go.Podcast.com. yes. But. Yes. Thank
you. Thank you for that plug.I appreciate that. I think I love.
We both have one thing incommon for. Absolutely. Well, we
have a couple things incommon. Common. Three things in common.
We understand thatperseverance and fortitude and strength
move us forward in life andthat we can always redefine our purpose
(53:15):
at any time in life, that wejust have to take that first step
and recognize it like yousaid, and the fact that we both love
to inspire people and motivatepeople and educate people. So I have
a new friend.
Me too.
Yang, thank you very much. Iappreciate you being here. So Laurie
(53:36):
reminded us today that lifeisn't shaped by the big moments alone,
is shaped by the small ones.The stories we live, the lessons
we gather, and the courage ittakes to keep moving forward one
step at a time. Her work is areminder that reinvention is possible,
self acceptance is powerful,and the stories we tell could become
the stories that save us. Andmaybe, just maybe, your next chapter
(53:58):
is already waiting inside amoment you have haven't fully appreciated
yet. So that's a wrap fortoday's episode. I hope you found
inspiration, motivation and afew new perspectives to take with
you. If you enjoyed thisconversation, be sure to like subscribe
and follow us and stayconnected. You can find us on Apple,
Spotify or your favoritelistening platform. And you can head
(54:19):
over to YouTube and catch thefull video episode version of this
look at our pretty faces. Wehave a great day, have a great week
and thank you for being partof our community. Until next time,
this is Michael Hurst. And OneMore Thing before you Go.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of One more Thing before
you Go. Check out ourwebsite@beforeyougopodcast.com youm
(54:41):
can find us as well assubscribe to the program and rate
us on your favorite podcastlistening platform.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe
When a group of women from all over the country realise they all dated the same prolific romance scammer they vow to bring him to justice. In this brand new season of global number 1 hit podcast, The Girlfriends, Anna Sinfield meets a group of funny, feisty, determined women who all had the misfortune of dating a mysterious man named Derek Alldred. Trust Me Babe is a story about the protective forces of gossip, gut instinct, and trusting your besties and the group of women who took matters into their own hands to take down a fraudster when no one else would listen. If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show, our charity partners NO MORE have available resources at https://www.nomore.org. To learn more about romance scams, and to access specialised support, visit https://fightcybercrime.org/ The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “iHeart True Crime+, and subscribe today!