She's a gal who wears her heart on her sleeve, reaches out to people when they're hurting (I can personally attest to that) and makes art that always brings a smile to my face.
Pattie's been published in many (many!) popular magazines - and is now the proud mama of her first book, Permission Slips...for Your Heart & Soul (published by Story People - wow!).
Pattie agreed to answer a few questions about Permission Slips - which I share below (the interview questions are in brown, Pattie's answers in black) - and also shared some of her artwork from the book with us.
You can see more of her art on our Square-Peg People Interview with Pattie Mosca page - and speaking of Pattie's art - go order her book, it will not only help you remember to give yourself permission, but her art will bring a smile to your face for sure.
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(I know that you wrote briefly about this in the Introduction of your book, but...) Can you tell us how, or what, got you starting writing a book giving people permission?
In 2008 I began the year on a direct route to following my hearts dreams by submitting artwork to national magazines without fear! I called it "the get known nationally now tour"!
But right in the middle of my dream I was faced with the knowledge that my good husband, Michael had an incurable cancer and we were given the prognosis of 3 to 5 years.
POW! Right in the gut, and I stopped living my life. I rarely painted anymore, writing became only a small portion here and there, and rarely did I go out with friends.
Mostly I did this out of guilt...guilt that I was healthy...guilt that I was living...guilt that if I did things for myself that would be selfish. And I became a "caregiver" to my husband, doctors appointments, hospital visits, paperwork, all the household things. Life changed for me.
One day, a friend asked me what I was doing, and why wasn't I taking care of myself. What would it take to allow myself to do that, because you have to take care of yourself in order to really take care of someone else.
PERMISSION...that is what I needed. But from whom?...MYSELF!
So I started making myself a permission slip every week in an art journal, for those things I needed; a nap in the afternoon without guilt, laughing, finding something to smile about all day long.
And to my surprise the more I made the slips, the better I felt, the better I felt, the better I could take care of Michael.
By the end of the year of making those slips (52 of them) I felt pretty darn good even though my life was drastically changing. And as I felt good those around me felt good and the snowball effect of living life to the fullest took place all around me.
In 2011, toward the end of Michael’s life, I was having a very hard day and I pulled out that 2008 journal of permission slips to find one that I could use to help me...when I had a moment that said other people need permission too, that I couldn’t possibly be the only person who was not giving it to myself.
So I put it out to the universe...I shared my heart with Storypeople and they saw the value in giving ourselves permission and now that journal is a book for everyone!
My good husband passed several weeks before I actually found out that the journal was going to be made into a book, but he believed in me and kept saying “when they publish your book it is going to be so great, and help so many people. I am so proud of you”. And I know that he is!
Do you have a favorite permission slip, or one you find yourself using the most? If so, would you tell us which one and why?
This is my favorite permission slip…Rose-Colored Glasses Day.
Maybe it is because I have a sort of “pollyannish” out look on life! Especially during the time that I was doing this art journal.
This permission slip allowed me to see things in different way…My husband and I began to LIVE life with cancer. We choose to take the time that we had and enjoy the smallest of moments. We began to see things in shades of pink instead of grey.
Lots of people did not understand how we could laugh and joke while he was doing treatments, but we found that it served our hearts and souls to honor the time that we still had together, even if we were looking through rose colored glasses.
What part does art play in your personal permission (or, let's say - in your acceptance of your Self)?
Art is such an important part of my life, and by giving myself permission to do it when my muse shows herself allows me to stay true to my heart.
When I did not allow myself permission to paint or write I was well aware that there were pieces of ME missing. I knew that I was making myself unhappy by taking this important part of me and putting it to the side.
Once I gave myself permission to honor myself again…OH, how much better I felt, how much stronger I felt, how much more ME I felt.
What about your book do you think will grab the hearts of Square-Peg readers (you know, folks who resonate with the term Square-Peg)?
I myself am totally a square-peg person, never feeling that I quite fit in anywhere as a whole; and never more so than before I had started this journal.
This book allowed me to be uniquely me and begin to live the life that makes me who I am.
I think as square-peg people, we try to conform to what others think we should be doing, or we should be like, or how we should act. These permissions slips allow us to be our unique self.
We so easily give permission to everyone else, family and friends, but rarely do we give it to ourselves. Sometimes we just need someone else to give us permission. Sometimes it just takes that one slip that allows us to give ourselves more permission.
It is my heart's desire that at least one of these 52 permission slips resonates with the heart of readers. That they use them to catapult more permission for themselves in order to be true to their own heart, dreams and desires.
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My copy of permission slips arrived today.
I'm so excited.
Posted by: Merry ME | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 10:59 PM