Lorri & Little Lorri (I didn't name him after me, someone else did, but isn't he gorgeous?)
So, when I started VEGAN Happy Clothing in 2018, it was designed to be as a way to softly evangelise about veganism. To wear anything with a vegan logo is always planting thought seeds wherever you go. Sparking conversations. Opening doors.
It only started up really as a business around my kitchen table as I was so proud to have gone vegan and wanted to shout about it (don't we all ha ha) but I still needed to go to meetings but wanted to fly the flag, so I thought a subtle and gentle logo but with the word vegan in would do the trick.
And of course, here we are 4 years later and business is great. It isn't about the profits or selling clothes. It's always been about furthering the vegan message.
I would love to say that I have taken a salary out of VEGAN Happy in the last 4 years but I still haven't taken a penny for me. We end up giving heaps away to deserving causes so profit... what's that?
But on top, I find myself increasingly drawn to animal rescue, being more involved. And don't get me wrong, animal activism is many forms. You can share petitions and write to MP's and share social media, that is all an amazing form of activism (and much needed; social media will win the animal rights wars) but I just keep getting called to be more involved. I think it's because it took me 50 years to see the light and I am catching up on lost time.
So I was heavily involved with Camp Beagle who I love and adore so much. The plight of the MBR Beagles is so hideous that I don't want to put it all down here. But my eyes are now open to the vivisection industry as a whole and I can't close them again. The huge amounts of monkeys being brought in to find a cure for MonkeyPox when there have been only 5 deaths globally from it! Everything is so unjust and wrong.
So, I find myself always being so torn. I face my day with intending to spend a lot of time on my business. To write amazing social media posts about our gorgeous clothes (which they very much are) and to further my business. Discuss new ranges and collections and generally support my amazing Emily at the office.
But then I find myself distracted by my new campaign www.exposingcruelty.com and start adding more to the website or for our Student Outrage campaign (56% of all experiments on animals are conducted in universities).
My life is in turmoil. I am also quite poorly at the moment and waiting to get checked out, but there is an inner drive now that I can't stop (don't worry though, I am like a machine and whatever it is I will smash it!)
And I feel that you are the same too? You must feel this pull in both directions like it pulls you apart sometimes?
VEGAN Happy is my baby that I adore and need to nurture way more than I do (thank you Emily) and then on the other side are all the babies that I have never met and never will but I feel I need to help save.
That's the problem with being vegan though isn't it? You open a door to suffering really. When you go vegan you enter a space of peace and calm and tranquility as your body is purged of anything animal or impure. But then the reality sets in. What you have been helping perpetrate for so long. The suffering. The pain. It's all in front of you then when you start to open your eyes.
So I wonder every moment of every day what to do. My every being says animal rescue but I also need to nurture my business that furthers veganism. I need to do both more than I am doing but there is only one of me and I am starting to crumble.
How do you do it? How do you cope with the pulls in every direction? How do you take time to unwind and destress? Please tell me as I struggle to sit still and I need to learn how to.
And I really struggle to cry now. I think I have cut my emotions off to cope. Surely that's a bad thing? Or is it a good thing? A good coping mechanism? I really don't know, just learning every day.
The old Lorri had an advertising agency and was very money focused, profit driven, success driven. She goes vegan and that all goes out the window it seems ha ha. Power suits gone, hard toe boots for being around heavy sheep in a field are in! I used to smell of Jo Malone and now smell of dogs or sheep! My husband despairs at the lack of time for myself (and doesn't sit near me on the sofa, wonder why that is?) but privately supports me for which I am truly thankful for.
So as I write this, I need to get my head down and do some VEGAN Happy work as I have since really early being doing my Exposing Cruelty stuff. My heart is torn all the time. So I guess I will have to have half a heart in each camp and find a way to cope.
How do you cope with the pulls in every direction? Any tips, please let me know at lorri@veganhappyclothing.co.uk
Any good links, please send to me.
Sorry for the ramble, all help gratefully received.
Right... social media posts for VH here I come... Love you all so much,
Lorri xx
Me as always flying the flag. If we did VEGAN Happy knickers I would be wearing those too ha ha x