“Chai on Life — Unpacking Everyday Wisdom: Stories of Vulnerability, Strength, and the Human Heart” by Lorie Kleiner Eckert
I felt anxious. One of the Israelite’s writers, Lorie Kleiner Eckert, just published her new book, “Chai on Life.” Could I do it justice? It’s a book with 36 different essays. Can I figure out a way to summarize it all for readers? Worries filled my head, and then I realized that Lorie’s book could help me get started. She wrote, “Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and be quiet!” I love that line. She wrote, “Inhale confidence, exhale doubt,” so I took a deep breath.
The title, “Chai on Life,” is a play on the Hebrew word Chai, which means life. It fits into the motivational, inspirational, self-help genre. The printed format is a mini coffee-table book. It’s a small hard-covered book, almost square in shape, with a cheerful, bright cover that invites you to open it. It’s the kind of book that you can pick up and read one of the motivational stories to help start your day or to help you get through a tough time in your life. I laughed, I cried and I loved it. I could stop my review there. My neighbor joked with me that my reviews can get a bit lengthy, so he would be happy. But if I stopped there, I couldn’t share one of my favorite lines from the book, “My stomach is flat, but the L is silent.”
My computer screen was still blank, and I felt stuck. Lorie writes about the importance of having a game plan. So, I decided to read the book a second time. This time, I planned to write down all my favorite words of advice and wisdom along the way. Just the process of writing things down got me typing something and filling up the page, even if it wasn’t the actual review. As Lorie said, “Take that first step. Figure it out from there.”
When I started re-reading, I noticed a handy table of contents. Lorie organized her 36 personal essays into categories, such as Accepting Yourself and Others, Life 101 — A Formula of Living, Personal Reinvention, Eureka I Have Found It — Happiness, Aging, Can’t Help Loving that Family of Mine, The G Words — Gratitude and God, and more. For those experiencing a career change or the end of a relationship, you can jump right to the Personal Reinvention chapter and get some words of advice from Lorie’s life experiences, such as ”Go someplace every day. Being a shut-in is a BIG no-no.”
After each story, Lorie includes a full-page illustration with a phrase of wisdom summarizing what you just read. After an essay titled, “I Am Who I Am,” the next page says in large bold letters, “Be You! You’re BE-YOU-tiful just the way you are.”
Do you ever say, “Just give me the bullet points version?” Lorie includes a P.S. chapter in the back of the book just for you. It lists all of her phrases of wisdom with bullet points. Also, I found it helpful to be able to read them again, all in one place.
I think people will identify with Lorie’s stories, just like I did. Lorie wrote about the relationship with her mother. It was a coincidence that both her mom and my mom passed away from lung cancer. But even without a direct connection, I think most people will identify with having challenging relationships with parents or family members. I found that her stories helped the reader move forward or reach a place of acceptance.
Lorie takes us right into her living room with descriptions that use all of our senses. She wrote about her mom, “Her main offense was wearing Merry Mules to walk around the house. They slapped at her heels. They announced her arrival. They made me feel like I was under surveillance.” Even though I don’t know much about footwear and I never heard them called Merry Mules, I could picture the kind of backless shoes Lorie was talking about. I could hear her mom walking around the house.
The other day, I was telling my rabbi about a problem my family was dealing with, and I heard myself say, “Everyone has something.” I just quoted Lorie’s dad. Somehow, his words were now part of my vocabulary. Lorie writes about her dad several times. He lived with a bone marrow disorder that required regular blood transfusions, which led to needing nightly infusions of an iron chelator. Her dad would say, “Everyone has something. This is mine.”
Along the way, we learn about Lorie. She has 10 grandkids. She celebrated her 70th birthday, and she wrote a letter to her 16-year-old self, which was one of my favorite essays. She values her friendships. She talks about the importance of building friendships several times in the book. Lorie writes the Israelite’s “Living and Learning” column. In October’s column, she mentioned her neighbor Margot. I felt like I already knew Margot from reading the book. I also know about her friend Robin, who was her best “Long Story Listener” during their walks together. This is the first review where I felt comfortable calling the author by her first name. Even though she writes for the Israelite, I’ve never met Lorie in person. Her openness, humor and personal stories let us in.
Lorie encourages everyone to write down their own thoughts and stories, which sparked a memory from my days as a door-to-door salesman. She even provides pages of blank notepad paper in the back of the book to get started. I sold book club memberships door-to-door in the 1980s. The want ad said I would be working for a publishing company. I thought, ‘I enjoy writing, it could be cool working for a publishing company!’ At the interview, my future boss said, “We’re going out in the field today.” I found myself walking behind him up the steps to someone’s front porch. He knocked on the door, the lady actually let him in, he made the presentation and he made the sale. I really needed a job, and I wanted to get married. So I thought, ‘This doesn’t look too bad. I can do this.’
It wasn’t nearly as easy as my boss made it look. You had to knock on over 100 doors a day just to make 10 to 12 presentations. Out of those, you hoped to close 3 sales. Lorie’s words rang so true to me that taking the first small step was the key. She wrote, “On the road to success, even the smallest steps move you forward.” After three years, it was still hard for me to knock on the first door. It never got easier. But each morning, I walked up the steps to the porch, knocked on that first door, and I was on my way. It was the strangest thing how that worked. That pit in my stomach just disappeared as soon as I got myself to knock. Lorie quoted Stephen King, “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
There are people I know who could be helped by Lorie’s book, but they aren’t ready to ask for help. Perhaps they will see her bright little square book out on a coffee table, inviting them to open it. They might read one of Lorie’s sayings and let out a chuckle. That might be the first time they laughed in over a week. They decide to turn the page and read the next story, and the next and the next.