La Salonniere

Liz Lamoreux

Liz Lamoreux is the author of Inner Excavation – Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry  and Mixed Media. It’s a beautiful book filled with wonderful creative exercises. Liz is a writer, photographer, poet, mixed-media artist and yoga teacher. She chronicles her life in the Puget Sound area with her husband, Jon, their baby, Eleanor Jane, and dog, Millie, at Be Present, Be Here. I hope that by the end of this interview, you’ll understand why she’s loved by many, including me.

1. Liz, you and I have a common experience in our life stories: we both spent our 10^th years sewing and baking in 4-H clubs. You tell a wonderful story in your book about returning to sewing 20 years later, yet not quite perceiving your creations as art. How did you finally allow your inner fabric artist to emerge and blossom?

So glad you asked me about fabric and not the experience of being the second to last quick bread judged in a tent in Northern Indiana on a 98-degree August day in 1987. My sewing talents seem to be much greater than my quick bread talents; though, I must admit I haven’t made quick bread since….

Now to answer your questions: When I began sewing again, I started creating bags and aprons and didn’t really see myself as a fabric artist. As I became more comfortable sewing and creating my own patterns, I was drawn to using vintage fabrics and buttons and other sewing supplies. When I began to think about the stories that those items held because the women who came before me had used them, I slowly realized that I was releasing those stories with each stitch. Somewhere in there, I began to see that I was also telling new stories. The truth is, it is all about the stories for me when it comes to creating and art and writing and photography. When I had the aha moment that an apron could actually invite someone to feel just as connected to something real in the same way a painting can, I began to see my fabric creations as art.

2. You served as a poetry muse for so many (including me) several years ago when you co-founded the wonderful online community, Poetry Thursday. You continue to be an advocate for the accessibility of poetry today. Can you share a bit about what poem notes are and how we can use them as seeds for our creative endeavors?

When I started writing poetry a few years ago, I spent some time really caught up in what a poem is supposed to look like. Although I appreciate the world of academic poetry (and the poets that world has birthed), I see poetry as a tool for healing (both reading it and writing it), so the quest for a perfect poem doesn’t really interest me. I came up with the phrase “poem notes” to give myself permission to just write. A poem note might be writing what looks like a poem or it might be the beginnings of a poem or perhaps it is simply a few words linked together that one doesn’t quite yet recognize as a poem. How I wish I could give all people I encounter the gift of realizing a poet lives inside them. I think poem notes are a good place to start. One of my favorite poem note prompts that I use a few times a week is, “in this moment, I am….”

3. Like you, I grew up very close to my grandmother and have a passion for family histories. How can researching our past help us to excavate our authenticity?

Oh I love this question (hence my very long answer). There are so many stories just waiting for us to uncover them. When we sift through photos from our childhood (or the childhoods of others), we find clues that give us glimpses into brief moments that are like one paragraph in the book that is someone’s life. When I look at photos from my own childhood (I am lucky to have quite a few), I take in all the details from the green shag carpet to the spice rack in the kitchen on the wall behind me to the socks I am wearing. I have a memory of being in high school when my grandmother (my dad’s mom) gave me a box of old photos. I was so delighted to find a photo of my dad and his dad and his dad’s brother, so I framed it for him for Christmas. (My father’s father died before I was born, so I am always looking for clues to paint a picture of this man who seems like a myth at times.) I later learned that my dad had turned to my mom that Christmas afternoon and indicated that the photo captured a not so pleasant memory for him. This brings up an important piece of this excavation into the past. Not everyone will want to “go there,” so it is important to choose how far back and where you want to go. This is why I think we should bring a flashlight, so that there is not only always light in the darkness, but we can also choose what we want to shine our light on. I believe that the clues we find help us to understand why we are in this place on our paths in this moment, even when we uncover things that might be difficult or dusty or confusing. I think we must invite ourselves to seek what is real because that is where the truth sits waiting for us.

4. Your baby girl, Ellie, is a poster child for cute. How has Ellie’s presence in your life helped you to excavate your own inner artist?

Thanks for your kind words! Ellie is a sweetheart. And life has certainly changed quite a bit since her arrival. Since her birth, I have found myself spending a lot more time just being in the present moment. Trying to stay right here and not jump ahead to the “what ifs” and the “to do” list. This has meant that I have to use my time a bit more efficiently, but it also means I am pushing myself to listen to what being present can teach me. Some days this means bundling her up and going for a photo walk. Other days this means letting her play on the floor in my little room while I work on necklaces. I am trying to be softer with my expectations of myself and all that I think I “should” accomplish as an artist and writer. For example, watching Ellie discover her hands and how they work and can pick things up pushes me to remember what is real and beautiful about life and a “to do” list is never more important than that truth.

5. One of the things I really admire about you is your dedication to the art of photographic self-portraits. Your Flickr set, what is real, is a perfect example. How have you learned to quiet the negative inner voices that can sometimes come up for women when we’re shooting self-portraits?

In 2006, I spent two months doing a mirror meditation each day (I still turn to this meditation often). This meant that I spent somewhere between 30 seconds and five minutes a day standing/sitting in front of a mirror and just breathing while eye to eye with myself. When I did this, the way I looked at myself began to soften. Over time, I started to see the truths of the woman before me and this helped me to also begin to see my beauty. This has helped me when I take self-portraits as it has pushed me to seek the real and let go of the need to hide. However, what I love about taking self-portraits is that I am in control of the camera. I choose what I want to capture through the lens and what I want to share with others. This helps me soften the voices. And, (most of the time) I give myself permission to just delete photos and see them as bad photos as opposed to evidence that I am not beautiful.

6. Recently you’ve been doing some videoblogging and have talked about “your corner.”  What is your corner and how do we create our own?

Recently, I have been moved to look at what energy I put out into the world, and how I can sometimes waste the few hours of free time I have in an evening looking at everyone else’s corner in this little grey box (my laptop) instead of simply being alive in my own corner. I love the connections and beauty the Internet and blog world have provided me. At the same time, I can simply get caught up in wishing my house looked like that house or my studio had more space like this person’s studio or that I had money to buy that new printer like so-and-so or even that Ellie’s birth story was full of only good things like that mom made her experience sound. The list is endless really. I am inviting myself to remember that being my most real self and honoring the truth I know is the only way to do my best work and live my most authentic life. We create our own corner by living, really living, in it. This idea of “really living in our corner” can mean a lot of things I suppose, but to me, the most important idea is that we just show up as ourselves. Of course, this means we have to spend time getting to know ourselves. So, I think the first step is to close that laptop, lean into the quiet, and listen to yourself. I could go on and on…

7. You created Be Present Retreats and will offer several retreats this year, including Inner Excavation weekends inspired by your book. How will Inner Excavation weekends serve as a companion piece for readers of your book?

Inner Excavation weekends will be an opportunity for people to give themselves the space and time to really dig into some of the ideas and themes brought up in the book. We will play with paper and paint and color, dance inside words and find our inner poet, sit in the quiet, go on photography excursions, spend time with our senses, and how the list goes on. So often we flip through books about art and inspiration and then they sit on our shelves. These weekends will give us the chance to put the inspiration into practice.

8. Since the first Inner Excavation weekend will be held in Indiana, I must ask: how would we recognize your inner Indiana girl? What parts of Indiana reside within you no matter where you live?

I feel moved to answer this in a poem note:

I come from

a baby blue Studebaker convertible

the fourth from the top brown carpeted step on Garland Circle

rigid rows of reaching soybeans

her laughter wafting from the kitchen

a solitary singing cardinal atop the dogwood

a day so humid the wallpaper wrinkled

9. You often collaborate on projects and invited several women to contribute to your book. What are some of the best things you love about collaboration?

Collaborating really does make me so happy, and I hope to bring this into my creative life more and more as I walk this path. The shifts in perspective collaboration brings can really impact us. I love looking at different ways people see things and how they can interpret the same prompt or idea. We all bring our unique stories to each moment, and I love how just one phrase or even a word can change the way we see something. We expand as artists and people through collaboration.

10. You create soul mantra necklaces and lockets and sell them in your Etsy shop, The Little Room. If you could leave us with one soul mantra, what would it be?

I am enough.

Blog:  Be Present, Be Here

Book:  Inner Excavation

Retreats:  Be Present Retreats

Etsy:  The Little Room

Flickr:  Liz Elayne

Twitter:  @lizelayne

Lori-Lyn Hurley

I've wanted to do a blogging interview series for years. I'm thrilled to kick it off with Lori-Lyn Hurley, one of my oldest, dearest blogging friends. She's a writer, a Reiki Master and an intuitive healer. Lori-Lyn extends such beautiful, loving energy out into the world. We talked about family history, her intuitive healing business, writing inspiration, social media, pursuing one's passion, the time demands of self-employment and the one thing she would encourage you to do every day. I hope you'll enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

1. I’m fascinated by genealogy. How has your ancestry and/or family history shaped your choice to pursue work in healing and wellness?

My family and family history influenced my choice in several ways. When I was growing up, there was much discussion in my home about the fact that there was more to life, health, spirituality--more to this human experience--than one is often led to believe. I always knew the door was opened for me to explore pathways of thought and practice that felt right to me, rather than accepting what the dominant culture of the time wanted me to do or believe. 

Both of my parents were college professors, but when I was in middle school, my dad took a year's leave of absence from teaching so that he could pursue a career as an entertainer. He was actually about the same age that I am now. It was a risk - but he decided to take it and pursue his dream. He never went back to teaching and he's still performing. That decision of his was a great role model for me. It showed me the power in stepping forward into your desires and doing the work you love.

I can also see some direct links between my ancestry and the specifics of my work. Even though it wasn't always spoken about publicly, my grandmother experienced profound psychic ability. I've always known that was a part of my genetic structure and family history, as was anxiety and depression. Watching family members struggle with emotional issues, and hearing stories of the similar struggles of my ancestors, inspired me to want to find a better way. Part of my passion for learning all that I can about the way the body mind and spirit works, and how we can shape and influence our lived experience -- how we can heal -- is inspired by this history.

2. As a Certified Reiki Master, can you tell us where Reiki originated and what kind of global presence it has as a healing art?

As far as the origins of Reiki, there's some confusion and contradictory information, but what is widely understood is that Mikao Usui had a mystical experience in Japan in 1922, which led him to organize Usui Reiki as a hands-on healing technique. Reiki is actually a general term that describes a variety of spiritual healing methods, and Dr. Usui's technique is formally known as the Usui System of Natural Healing or Usui Reiki Ryoho. 

Dr. Usui's methods were changed slightly (for the American audience) when they were brought to the west by Hawayo Takata, and teachers like Diane Stein helped spread the teachings in an accessible way in the 70s and 80s, somewhat demystifying Reiki, in my opinion. (As much as energy healing can be demystified.)

I think we're living in an exciting time for energy work. What was once strictly the domain of spiritual seekers, shamans and mystics, is now broadening. Science is beginning to catch up with what spiritual healers have always known. Reiki is practiced in clinics and hospitals, more and more people are hearing about it and adopting it as part of their wellness routine.

I don't think the influence of nurses should be underplayed when it comes to how Reiki has spread in the western world. Doctors diagnose, but nurses heal. They know the power of loving human touch, and many nurses have been working quietly behind the scenes, and publicly, to promote the art of Reiki and bring it into the mainstream.

Even though I am trained in the Usui tradition, like many practitioners, I use the word Reiki loosely to encompass a variety of methods, both physically tangible and spiritually intuitive, that accelerate the flow of energy between the body and the emotional body, to promote healing and wellness on all levels.

It will be interesting to see how and where we go from here, but I do believe the world is catching on and more and more people are waking up to the profound power of channeling energy.

3. You have a M.F.A. in Fiction Writing and write beautiful nonfiction at your blog. Who do you read when you feel stuck as a writer?

(Well, first of all, thank you.) 

When I was eighteen or nineteen, someone I barely knew gave me a copy of Sharon Olds’ Satan Says and completely rearranged my understanding of what one could do as a writer. I had an immediate visceral reaction to her work. I think I own every Sharon Olds collection in publication, and those poems are my go-to medicine when I'm feeling stuck. Her words shoot straight into my blood and remind me how to be brave. Her poems also speak to the power of the personal. We, on this planet, are living a shared experience. She can tell the story of a moment in her life and even thought I didn’t live that moment, I can get in it with her and understand.

I also reach for Francesca Lia Block, because style is liberating to me. She reminds me about the freedom of art and how magical it is to be wildly truthful and wildly creative at the same time. Her words seem to zip across the page.

4. You also have a YouTube channel. What do you like most about vlogging?

I started posting videos online several years ago when I was part of the Co-Creating Your Reality project. I felt self-conscious at first, and when that project ended, I let my YouTube channel go dormant. I recently revived it, however, because I find video to be a great vehicle for connecting and getting the word out about what I do, but most importantly, for introducing myself to potential clients and friends. I see my work as a relationship. I think video allows people to know me in a way that the blog doesn't. It's also just really fun. It feels playful to me and it definitely pushes my boundaries in a good way.

5. How has social media contributed to your practice as an intuitive healer?

Social media has given me a community. I have not only met people, but forged real, deep and lasting friendships with people I never would have met otherwise. It allows me to find other voices that challenge and compliment my own. I feel that the internet, but social media in particular, is my school, my stage and a room in my temple. Like any tool, it can be used for good, evil or indifference, but I make sparking soul connections everyday via social media and those moments contribute to my work in a big way. 

In a practical sense, social media is how I advertise. (Although, I'm not crazy about that word!) I don't have the budget for ads, but I can talk about what I do on Facebook and Twitter and my people can find me and I can find them and we can, and do, have meaningful conversation and connection.

The fact that I can be sitting in Kentucky in my pajamas with my cup of coffee conversing with my dear friend in California, in real time, while we're also conversing with other people, blows me away. I mean, yes, there are also telephones, but there's just something about the wider community of social media -- the marriage of public and private -- it makes sense to me.

6. This year you became self-employed. What has been one of the unexpected gifts of self-employment?

Being able to see and be in my world fully has been a great and unexpected gift.

It actually took me a while to realize that I was in charge of how I scheduled my time. When I feel like it's a good time to go to the store, I can go. When I feel like it's a good time to sit on my porch, I can. I'm not saying that I'm living a life of leisure (I'm actually working more now than I was in my 9 to 5), but I'm in touch with my natural rhythms and the rhythms of my environment now in a way that I wasn't before. 

Even I didn't realize how much of myself, my senses and the way I experience life I had deadened and muffled so that I could survive in an office environment. Self-employment has felt like blooming open. I watch the animals in my yard. I notice the way the wind moves in the leaves outside my window. I listen to the body of my home, how it moves and how it works. 

I am present in my world. I'm actually alive. (It's pretty cool.)

7. How do you juggle the time demands of healing work, writing, social media and marketing your business?

Not very well, actually. That's something I'm looking at as we head into 2011.

I love my work and I have a wee bit of an obsessive personality, so it's easy for me to get out of balance and dedicate all of my time and energy to one area of my life at the expense of the other areas. I'm looking at ways to place a more of a structure on how and when I tend to the aspects of my work and expression.

At the same time, my nature is to flow without structure. I think I work best when I can go where I'm called and immerse myself in whatever it is that comes to the surface and speaks to me. I don't want to "tweet" on a schedule, for instance. I prefer to chat on twitter when the inspiration strikes. 

I think there's a happy medium between lists and schedules and divine inspiration. I hope to ease myself in to that place in the coming year.

8. What’s a favorite way you like to unwind?

My favorite moment of the day comes after dinner. I often take a salt bath to release and detoxify. Afterwards, I put on my pajamas and curl up on the couch with Tracy (boyfriend) and Woody (pug) with a quilt or two and the laptop. We watch old movies or tv while I surf around on the net. That's my favorite downtime. It sounds so, well, digital, but it actually feels cozy and sweet.

9. If you could encourage everyone to do one thing every day, what would it be?

Meditate.

I almost hesitate to use that word because there's a lot of pressure and resistance around it, but I believe that meditation (in whatever form you choose to engage with it) is the power cord that connects you to source energy.

I talk to people every day who are struggling to find clarity or answers or awareness. We can be complicated creatures; we can make things much more difficult than they have to be. So often, the answer to everything is simply to be still. In quieting the mind and the body, you make the space for spirit to move through you and speak to you.

A small, simple meditation practice can change your life.


Lori-Lyn is a native Kentuckian who spent almost a decade in New York City before returning to her home town. She is a writer, Reiki practitioner and intuitive. She teaches workshops and works with holistic wellness clients in person and distance. She has a BA in studio art, and MFA in fiction writing and is attuned to Level III Usui Reiki.

Website:  Dream Life Wellness

Blog:  The Dream Life

YouTube Channel:  The Dream Life

Twitter:  @lorilyn

Facebook:  Dream Life Studio