About Us

About Ritual Mischief: We're a rag-tag community of wonder-filled, playful, sensitive, and always-grieving people, dogs, cats, trees, plants, flowers, bees, birds, forests, and fields who live, play, and work together on land we deeply love and are grateful to be present on, surrounded by the Salish sea. If you're ever on Whidbey Island, stop by for a visit. Call or text ahead, park in Silly Dog Studios' driveway, and follow the signs back to the Ritual Mischief herbal studio. We live on land traditionally cared for and still loved and protected by the Coast Salish, Tulalip, Suquamish, and Stillaguamish peoples and the Hul'qumi'num Treaty group. Anyone with family heritage connections to this land is welcome to visit anytime and for any reason. When this land loves and misses you, we feel that way too. We aspire to live life playfully and generously and to do things with uy shqwaluwun (good thoughts and feelings) whenever possible.

Lori talks with plants and trees; makes plant-infused oils, balms, lotion bars, and sleep and dream pillows; hosts gatherings and makers markets; and writes to relax. Friend Barbara helps in the shop during busy times. Friend Gina uses Lori's oils and dried plants to make our soaps, shampoo bars, dish soap bars, dog shampoo bars, and shower steamers. Daniel offers emotional support, IT support, market set up and tear-down support, and all the hidden backend bits that make small businesses actually work. More than 20 trees sit on our board of directors now, including the 10 Douglas fir trees who first suggested our partnership 8 years ago. Cora dog insists Lori takes many breaks and directs outdoor play and activities. Joe and Finn cats direct indoor play and napping. Papa Jim and long-time friend Erik sometimes help with filling sachets and sleep pillows and wrapping soaps or putting stickers on tins. Papa Jim also makes cookies for our makers markets. Nana Linda provides magical wordless support on unwavering love.

About the herbalist: My grandmother, LaVina Kane, who lived well right up to her 100th birthday, was an herbalist in rural South Dakota, which is where I grew up. She called herself a farm wife, gardener, mom, and grandma, and in our weekly trips to her farm she fostered within us our love of running free in nature, listening to herbs, plants, flowers, bees, chickens, cats, dogs, cows, women, and rolling hills from the time we could walk. My people are of Irish, German, Norwegian, and English descent, and I have one native American great grandfather who I can't find any family information about beyond one old photo and my grandmother's stories to me as a teenager 40 years ago. At 18 I moved west, and I've now spent more than 30 years living in the greater Seattle area, and the past decade on south Whidbey Island. I'm the author of 8 books and 8 activity books about wonder.

My specialty--as herbalist, essayist, poet, neighbor, friend, auntie, home canner, elder caregiver, makers' market host, home-canning instructor, and accidental mystic--is working slowly, carefully (filled with the caring of a whole place, not just individual worry), and in step with the land, forest, seasons, plants, wise women, and ancestors here. I'm inspired by herbalists, makers, craftspeople, writers, artists, and other kind wanderers the world over. As an herbalist I listen to them as I go. I infuse loved, trusted, local, abundant Whidbey-grown and -gifted plants, flowers, herbs, tree branches, and lichens into olive oil. I work with about 50 local plants, herbs, trees, and lichens now, and I'm interested in understanding these particular plants and their environments and ways of being better--and to grow ever closer to them--instead of trying to learn a little bit about all plants in existence. Beyond my grandmother, the forest, and the plants themselves, I learned many of my ways from local shamanic herbalist teacher Julie Charette Nunn, her farm, wild roses, trees, goats, and her teachers. And from local legend herbalist/farmer Eaglesong Gardiner, and from Erin VanHee of Trillium Herbal Medicine in Concrete, WA. Our relationships with these teachers, and neighbor plants, with ancestors and local women, and herbalists around the world, plus our love of this place, and my local plant-infused oils serve as the base for most of our herbal offerings. I'm personally interested in emotional, spiritual, community, and planetary wellness; cross-generational learning and unlearning; working with and following the lead of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people far far FAR better than most of our ancestors did; stopping genocide in its tracks the world over and in Gaza and the West Bank where I have dear friends suffering unimaginably; and in the unshaken wonder and playfulness within us and around us all.

All emotions are welcome here.

Let me know what I can do to support you in feeling safe enough to play or work or visit here. I'm a work in progress. I'll do my best to do the same.

My name is Lori.