This afternoon I got pulled over by a police officer in a huge SUV.

He followed me for a long time before finally turning his lights on.  I couldn’t breathe.  I was panicking inside.  I knew I was speeding, because when I drove past him, I glanced down at my speed.  72 miles an hour.  OMG.  What is the speed limit on that road?  45? 55?

(For the record, I am not a speeder, usually.  My husband often gets annoyed with me for driving too slow and being afraid to drive more than a few miles over the speed limit on highways.)

The officer came to my window and asked for my license and registration.  I handed them to him and he said he would be back in a moment.  He walked back into his SUV behind me.

I felt like I was 7 years old and in big trouble.  I actually felt like crying.  But I’m not seven and I am allowed to make a mistake and speed and I am allowed to get a ticket.  I do not need to be perfect and good all the time.

I was starting to feel less panicked.  I can handle this, I thought.  It’s okay.

Then I realized that I could add my powerful loving energy to the situation.  I called in all the angels around me and asked for their help.  I would send love to the officer.  Like, big time loving thoughts, prayers and blessings.  I closed my eyes.  I imagined beams of white light swirling around him and his vehicle.  I wished only good for him and his family.  I hoped he felt abundant and loved.   I prayed that he would be safe and appreciated in his work.  I imagined a beam from my heart to his- soul to soul- may you be happy, may you shine, may you have peace.

The thing about sending love to someone else is that it always comes back around again to me.  I felt washed over in caring and compassion for this guy.  It didn’t even matter at all if I got a ticket by the time he came back to my car.

I had found love instead of fear.

He leaned down toward my window and made eye contact with me.  He said, “I really don’t want to give you a speeding ticket.  So I’m going to give you this lesser traffic violation from the township.  It won’t go on your record or cost nearly as much.”

He explained a little more about how to mail the ticket and really minimized it’s importance.  He seemed almost sad that he had to give me a ticket at all.

With complete presence I said, “Thank you so much for being so nice to me.”

He replied, “Thank you, for being so nice to me.”

And then he stood in the road and held traffic back, waving me on when it was safe to pull out and into the road.

Thank you.  May you be well.

Wow, I am so honored to have my artwork on Natural Awakenings Magazine again this month in select markets.  If you go to Whole Foods or your library or health food store, you might find it there.  I haven’t seen a hard copy of the magazine yet myself, but hopefully soon!

I am going to be taking a break from my blog for the rest of this week.  It’s vacation time!  This is the first winter we have not spent months buried in snow.  Actually, we have had record amounts of “no snow whatsoever” here.  Today my dogs went outside and fell asleep in the grass while basking in the sun.  In February!

When I am back I will share more about a new video series I am starting titled: What’s Real?  It is an inspired idea I have and I am just doing it.  I am JUST DOING IT- Even though I am a little scared and doubtful thoughts are creeping in.  Even though I am not sure exactly how.  Even though I am new to my MacBook and just learning how to use iMovie.  Even though in the middle of the night when I wake up to pee, I think I must be crazy to do this- I am doing it anyway.  Yay!

It feels empowering and scary.  We’ll see how it unfolds!  Exciting!

I’ll be back next week.  xoxo

You can view the video on the Year of Wishes page here.

There is something about Wild Sister magazine that makes me pour my heart out in all of the articles.  The February issue is about Self-Love.  I immediately knew what to write and I got a vision for the painting to go with it.  I find Wild Sister to be enchanting, luminous and divine.  I was thrilled to see that Jen asked Gabrielle Bernstein to share her wisdom in the pages!  So much love  here.

A lot happened inside my heart while we were in The Line.

It was my mother and my husband and myself.  We were visiting my mother, 6 hours away, for the weekend.  The sun was shining brightly, but it was bitter cold and windy.  My mother’s hand was holding a flimsy aluminum rolling cart.  She knew a few other people in the line that also lived in her senior high rise.

I looked up and down the line.  A far as I could see, I was the only one wearing a winter coat. My coat was new, a gift from my husband for Christmas.  It is from Eastern Mountain Sports- full length, down-filled, warm and cozy with a fake fur hood.  I also wore a pair of expensive EMS gloves, that are thin, but have a special lining to keep fingers warm.  I wondered if I was the only person in line who was warm.

Even my mother wasn’t wearing a winter coat.  Did she have one?  I couldn’t recall seeing one on her in a long time.  When did this all happen?

The line moved slowly, people pulling their carts and chatting.  I felt myself wanting to shrink, wishing my jacket wasn’t so nice, wishing I didn’t wear any make-up, wishing I wasn’t there at all.   This shrinking feeling around my family is a familiar one.

Truth is, I never thought much about Food Banks.  Years ago, as a teacher, I donated cans for local food banks and we held can-food drives in the schools that I worked in.  I even remember collecting coats for kids that didn’t have any to wear.  But I never thought much about what that looked like, to not have enough money for basic needs, such as food.  I never thought much about what it felt like to be in that position in life.

Here in the line, the pain of it all was palpable.  It was heavy.  The volunteers who worked at the food bank had the kindest eyes and the most genuine smiles as they lugged sacks of potatoes, one after the other, into peoples’ carts.  It was all so sweet and so sad.  I felt a mix of confusion, sorrow, gratitude, guilt, frustration, and Love.

I am not sure what to do with this experience that is weighing heavy on my heart.  Maybe it means I should volunteer at my local food bank.  Maybe it is a lesson in gratitude for my beautiful life.  Maybe I should give money to my mom.  Maybe I should send her a heavy winter coat.  Maybe I should “live and let live.”  Maybe it is a lesson in acceptance.   Maybe it is all of that.

Maybe Just Love is enough.  For today, I am just going to love my mom and everything else, just the way it is.

I saw this quote in Hannah Marcotti’s gorgeous course called Making Space (I super-duper highly recommend this course from the bottom of my heart.)  The quote made me think immediately of my gratitude project, A Hundred Thank Yous.

This is why gratitude feels so right, so good.

Announcement…after a brief hiatus over the holidays, I am back to my Hundred Thank Yous Project!  Yay!  I am two-thirds of the way through the project and I am working to schedule an exhibition of all 100 paintings that will happen in June.  (June!)  Everyone who gets a painting is invited and it will be open to any of my people who want to come!  I literally want to jump up and down with excitement about the event!  Of course, not everyone will be able to pick up their painting in person, so I am busy collecting addresses and putting little love letters to go with each painting that will be mailed to those who can’t make it.

I decide that February is THE month.  The month to work my heart out on the paintings and get them organized and finished so I can feel peace and bliss in the months leading up to the exhibition.

This project is the most JOYFUL thing I  have ever done.  I have come to realize that once my grateful project is finished, I may keep making paintings for people.  Maybe I will.  And give them away one at a time.  Or, I might do a different gratitude project.  Who knows.  But, I am very open to keeping this light of gratitude glowing in my heart.  It has deeply changed me.

On that note, here are a few things I am WILDLY grateful for in this moment:

• Hannah Marcotti.  Love this woman to bits.  Her work for the world is angel-sent.
• Goddess Leonie, my soul-sister of the Turquoise Ray (never heard that before and I looooove it!)  I am part of her Goddess Circle and (holy mother of Goddess) the wisdom and love pouring out of it all is epic.
• My new Happy Light.  Oh, the glow of Happy Light sun in my studio in the depths of winter!  (You can see it in the photo up top.)
• New Anthropologie mugs.  I truly LOVE them beyond reason.

I am headed to my mom’s this weekend and will probably be off-line most of the time.  A sweet little break at the end of January- then paint paint paint for everyone I love and adore!!!

Before I go, here is a sneak peek at my new Self-Love Prayer Flags series in the works!  The flags reflect what I believe is the most important thing we can do for the world- Love ourselves.  Can’t wait to finish and share.

Thank you for being here.  Much love.

Hello sweet friends!  Lisa and I have just 9 Calendars left!  We are selling them at the discounted rate of $24.00.  (What a deal!  In the end you get 12 art prints + a Year of Wishes.) The sale ends when all of the calendars are gone.

We had a hugely beautiful response to the calendars and are so grateful.  You can join us all year long on The Year of Wishes tab above, where we will be doing posts and vlogs on the topic of each month’s calendar wish.

January’s wish is: May I appreciate my body.  May I be filled with love and gratitude.

February’s wish is: May my mind be at peace.  I am relaxed and I am safe.

We are so grateful to have you with us!  You can buy the last few Year of Wishes Calendars here.

Much love,

Lori and Lisa

I am writing to you today from my beautiful new studio!   Just writing that sentence makes me want to pause and breathe it in.  I feel expanded, open, grateful.

I moved my studio from a crammed upstairs bedroom (that also served as my dressing room) to a bright and sunny room on the first floor of my home.  It seemed that I could never get a grip on my studio with all of the other pieces of my life (clothes, beauty products, jewelry, personal filing cabinets, computers, etc) all sharing the room with creating art + printing + packaging orders.  This was a really good move for me.

This space contains only what I need to do my work.  Only what I love and cherish.  Only what inspires me.  It is clean and sparkly.

And, best of all, it has been blessed.

Yesterday was a magical day.  (Interestingly, MAGIC is my word for the year, but that is another post.)

My two sweet, soul-sister friends, Lisa and Melanie, came over to do a new studio clearing and blessing.  They brought me the most gorgeous flowers.  Lisa created a ritual that was an open-my-heart-beautiful experience.  We cleared out any old energy to make space for what I want to happen in this studio.  I declared my wishes- we used essential oils and sounds and ceremony.  But best of all, Lisa wrote a Blessing for Lori’s Space- here is the first sentence:

Sweet Divine Spirit,

So filled with Creativity and Love,

Bless this space with Your Magic.

I would share the rest of this blessing with you, but we decided it was a magical gift for the world.  The studio space blessing and clearing is on it’s way to being an inspired Creative Space Blessing book or kit of some sort.  Lisa is working on that and I will let you know when it is finished.  If you do any kind of creating, you will love this with all your heart.  It needs to be out in the world.

My art space feels different..more inspired, more magical, peaceful, abundant, clear…good things are happening here already.

I can feel it.

I am so excited!  Lisa made a video for our first month of A Year of Wishes!  We both got Macs over the holidays and are both ready to start doing more things like videos and e-books this year.  Her video for this month is so great.  She takes you though a guided meditation on the first affirmation for the month, May I Appreciate my Body.  May I be filled with Love and Gratitude.

This is a great topic for me this month too as I am sitting here looking at my affirmation card.  I kind of lost control this holiday season.  In a lot of ways, actually.  I was busier this holiday with my business than ever before.  I am so grateful for that, but I recognize that I did not do a good job of taking care of myself during the busy-ness that has been my life, well, since the beginning of November. I have not eaten well or exercised hardly at all.  I’ve had lots of meltdowns (just ask my husband.)  My studio is a MESS.  Like, honestly, A MESS.  What happened to me is that I started down this slope of busy-ness that kept me from following my usual routine and then I just let it all go.  I all but completely stopped exercising, eating as well as I usually do, cleaning my studio, taking care of myself…

May I appreciate my body.  May I be filled with love and gratitude.  This starts today.  I am drinking a green smoothie and yerba matte tea as I write this.  Today my husband and I are beginning to reorganizing our home- it is actually a huge project of clearing out, simplifying and opening up.  It will make space in our lives to manifest and create what we want.  Just thinking about the end result makes me feel energized and better able to breathe deeply and peacefully.

Let it begin today.  You can watch Lisa’s gorgeous video here.  Thank you for being a part of this with us.  We are so grateful for all of you.  Happy New Year!

We would love to have you join us on a Year of Wishes!  It’s not too late to get your calendar in my etsy shop.

Marcie Shudder interviewed me for her Saturday Salon Series (what an honor!)  You can read it here.  Thank you Marcie!  Marcie is a fabulous photographer.  You can see some of her photos on her website- below are two of my favorites.  But it was hard to choose- she has so many amazing photos of traveling, nature and turkeys (I love turkeys.)

My big news of the day is that I just bought a MacBook Pro!  I am beside myself.  It was time.  I think I was the last artist left still using a PC.  But I am actually typing this on my PC because we are still in the process of transferring files over…I am learning my way around the apple world.

There is so much to share- so much that is going on inside my head that I want to write about.  But this is actually supposed to be a week off- I’m laying low with computer work and social media.  My friend, Lisa and I are getting together tonight with our husbands and we will do some kind of ritual to say goodbye to what we want to leave behind this year and bring in all the goodness of the new year.  Can’t wait.

Next time I write it will be on my new and fabulous and shiny Mac!  Grateful. Grateful.  Happy New Year Friends.  Much love to you.