Life Lessons

A Pithy Party

I like words…

Image created by Lorie Kleiner Eckert

I like words. This is probably not a surprise given the fact that I’m a writer. But I think more than most people, I have decorated my life with words. Let me explain as I share my life story as told in pithy words. There are over forty quotes included here. I hope some of them will speak to you too.

Mary Englebreit’s whimsical, colorful, cheerful, funny artwork is the first word art I remember loving. Her designs said such things as:

• Life is just a chair of bowlies
• Bloom where you’re planted
• Friends are the flowers in the garden of life

So it’s not surprising that when I bloomed as a quilt artist, I created quilts with words pieced into the design. Here are three samples from my first book, *With This Ring I Journey*:

• Paddle your own canoe
• Make your own luck
• I know I can

And three more samples from my second book, Get Quiet and Listen:

• Gee You Are You (this is how I spell GURU)
• Not all who wander are lost
• Keep it simple

I need to mention that for ten years I worked as a motivational speaker. I illustrated my talks with my quilt artwork. As I told the stories behind each quilt (the stories of my life) I hoped others would glean life lessons from them. The quilts featured in my first book — and lecture — told the story of the journey toward self-acceptance and love. The quilts in my second book/lecture, encouraged folks to get in touch with their inner voice in order to have the courage to live their own life. Since these topics were universal and not just meant for quilters, I sold my “motivational” program to every sort of group from PTAs to Procter & Gamble instead of quilt guilds.

Good news! My audiences wanted more programs from me. A third set of quilts accomplished the goal. Examples of their messages are:

• He who knows he has enough is rich
• Dare to be different
• I accept what is (a stronger statement than “it is what it is”)

There was a time in my life when my quilts-with-words hung on the walls of my home and comforted me. Today, I am surrounded instead by these words from gift shops, craft shows, and cross stitch samplers. In my bedroom alone you will find:

• Each blooms in her own season
• Today I choose joy
• Relax…you’re home
• Take time to smell the roses along the way
• Get rich quick: count your blessings

Not to mention the art of Vintage Girl Designs:

• The truth is, I would rather do nothing with you, than something with anybody else.
• Since things don’t always go right, it’s nice to have someone like you on my left.

Or the word art from the folks at Sticks furniture company:

• Cherish family
• Life is sweet
• Celebrate
• Come home for love

My third and fourth books did not include word art, but in an effort to get people to my brand-new website (2018) to learn about them, I created lots of memes that I posted on social media platforms. My thought was that if people liked my fun quotes, they would want to see what else I had to say. I created hundreds of these. Here are three favorites:

• Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and be quiet
• The answers in life are really quite simple; it’s just accepting that they are the answers that is so difficult
• In baseball as in life, all the important things happen at home

For the same purpose of getting people to my website, I also started writing blogs. These little stories are enjoyable for me to write, but I think they are important to write too. They chronicle life for those of us who have left middle age behind. I try to act as a rah-rah cheerleader with the message that this stage is sometimes difficult, but that we can manage it.

After writing a bunch of these peptalks, I compiled thirty-six of them into my fifth book, *Chai on Life*. No one will be surprised that each story has a full-color illustration with a one-line takeaway from the chapter. Here are some favorites now:

• Blessed are the flexible because they will not be bent out of shape.
• You owe yourself the love you so freely give to other people.
• Forgive unto others as you would have them forgive unto you.
• Relax…and find the JOY in the JOurneY.
• There is always something to be grateful for.

Well, darn, I seem to be at the end of my blog, and I still have so many groups-of-quotes to mention like:

• I sell wordy mugs on Etsy. One says: You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
• Around a piece of driftwood in my living room, I have a collection of rocks. Each has an important word literally written in stone: hope, dream, create…
• On social media, I post Quilters Quips for my fellow stitchers like this one: She who dies with the most fabric wins.
• I don’t buy all the word art I see, but I laugh over lots of it like this one: Cinderella never asked for a prince. She asked for a night off and a dress.

And speaking of laughter I will close with these lapel pins from the Ephemera company. They always get a laugh from my audience. To my male readers, I apologize for the last one, but it is just too funny to leave out:

• God, if you can’t make me thin, please make everyone I know fat.
• Damn right I’m good in the kitchen — I can eat for hours.
• If we are what we eat then I’m fast, cheap, and easy.
• If a man speaks in the middle of a forest & there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

There you have it. A pithy party of over three dozen quotes. Hopefully, there is something for everyone to learn from — or laugh over — in this collection.

If you like my writing, I hope you will check out my new book, Chai on Life. It contains 36 slice-of-life stories ranging in topics from belly fat to Billy Joel. It is available wherever books are sold and on Amazon. There is even a companion journal for you to write the stories of your life.

Chai on Life is available in 3 formats: Hard Back, Kindle, and AudioBook.

Originally published at https://www.loriekleinereckert.com on August 24, 2026.