About Patty Grasher

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10-second version of Patty’s bio:

For twenty-eight years she was a Catholic nun in a cloistered monastery. It was there she embraced a deep life of spirituality through prayer and good works.

She published books, started a radio station and ministered online through a Catholic e-card site that distributed millions of e cards over the space of some years and was featured by USA today.

Today she publishes books, blogs and enjoys married life.

Short Version

Motivational expert Patty Grasher connects with women who live every day lives with every day wisdom and grace.

For a little over two decades she was known as Sister Patricia Proctor, OSC, where as a quiet nun she created and maintained a large Catholic internet ministry, founded a Catholic publishing company that produced several best sellers and ran a 5000 watt AM radio station.

She blogs frequently from her website, PattyGrasher with spiritual insights, light moments of joy and shared games to unwind and rejuvenate the soul.

Her favorite quote, “There is no such thing as too small a step in the right direction,” has been the inspiration for numerous large achievements that she started by simply starting. Her e card site began with four hand drawn pictures that she put on the site and grew day by day into hundreds of inspirational cards that were shared over two million times.

Today she lives a quiet but very happy life with her husband Jon, two rascally dogs (Andre and Pudge) and one lovable, purring ten pound dictator called Buddy.

Long Version

Patty Grasher’s writing career began in the third grade when she wrote small stories, printed them by hand onto 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper that she cut into half and stapled together to make a small book. The cover she remembers the most had a small spaceship whirling through a sky of stars.

One story that surfaced long after she grew up was found in her brother Mike’s wallet after he died at the age of 28. It was a story of terror and horror as the hero struggled for life through a loud, crashing onslaught that turned out to be a human biting into an apple. The hero was a worm.

After she graduated from high school without honors or accolades she entered the Navy. It did not take but a few, happy (kidding of course) days in boot camp that she realized the Navy was not going to be as fun as she had expected. She made it through boot camp in Orlando, Florida, “A” school as as a Cryptologic Technician in Pensacola, Florida and a year in Iceland followed by a tour in Germany.

In Iceland she was introduced by several fine upstanding sailors with equal fine upstanding top secret clearances as herself to the world of hashish. Before her first puff from a passed pipe in a dark, barracks room the only thing she had tried were a few cigarettes she’d borrowed from her mom.

She didn’t do a lot of drugs (her words), though after a year and a half in Germany the powers at be decided it was best for her well-being that she be stripped of her rank, her clearance, and shipped back to the states for an all-paid vacation in a Naval Rehab center.

She passed through that with flying colors and went onto more colorful and powerful mood enhancers with a new set of fine upstanding sailors. She served out her term leaving with an honorable discharge in 1978.

She started attending community college to become a Journalist and was well on her way until the unexpected death of an older brother from a seizure. After that she flip-flopped back into an earlier spirituality (a Jesus Freak in High School) and decided to become a nun. Her sister Barb said that she had told her in second grade that was what she wanted to become as an adult. Scary what kids think of!

She entered the Poor Clares in Spokane, Washington at the age of 25 in 1981. Of course the nuns knew about her brief struggles with drugs but this was not an ongoing problem at the time and they agreed to give her a trial run. She shared that she never really “thought” they would agree to her staying but surprisingly they did for 24 years.

Sr. Patricia actually loved being a nun. For most of her time in the monastery it was the place she most wanted to be. She loved the prayer life and was allowed to do a great many things from starting an international e card site to running a 24 hour radio station.

Then gradually things changed. New leadership brought new thoughts and directions. Patricia’s own state of inner being was in turmoil with all the projects she was doing. Finally in 2009 she entered an Addiction program for Women Religious. During an eight month stay she made the decision to leave religious life.

In 2011 she was given dispensation from Rome to leave. For the next several years she lived in Albany, Oregon and began a slow transition to living outside of the monastery. In many ways this was the most difficult part of Patricia’s life journey but one she has never regretted undertaking.

She continued to blog and write and in 2011 published a book (a collection of inspirational stories) for the Catholic parish she belonged to for their 125th anniversary. She found small jobs that paid the rent and allowed her to live independently.

In 2015 she met the love of her life and moved to Vancouver, Washington. Married in 2017 she continues to write, blog and live a happily ever after sort of life with her husband, Jon and pets.

10 Fun Facts about Patty

In high school she had the longest hair in school. It was measured in a biology class and was over three feet long. She cut it herself one day when she decided there had to be more to her personality than how long her hair was.

She loves Pinterest with her favorite board being Stuff that makes me laugh. “Frankly auto-correct I’m getting a little tired of your shirt.” and “Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chips are the main reasons I have trust issues.”

Although she graduated from two addiction rehab programs she still likes a glass of wine now and then and does not turn down an occasional Margarita. She has no plans of going back to “any” rehab.

She loves to read murder mysteries as long as they are not too gruesome. Her favorite authors in this genre are Michael Connelly, Dick and/or Felix Francis and C. J. Box.

She still reads Juvenile literature. Loves mystical adventures such as Harry Potter, Brandon Mull, Christopher Paul Curtis and any of the Newberry Award books. One of her favorite books is, “Bud, Not Buddy.”

Her favorite TV shows are Garage Rehab, Blue Bloods, BBC’s; Amazing Miss Fischer and old Star Trek and Andy Griffith shows.

She likes to cook and loves making Mexican Rice and Mexican dishes as well as trying new dishes. Pretty avid with slow-cooker cooking!

Currently reading the book “Sugar Revolution” and reads a bit of it most days in between deciding what kind of cookie or desert she is going to bake next. She is a bit of a rebel in most everything . . .

She likes to garden . . . about one or two weeks out of the year. Then she would just rather buy veggies at the store or the Farmer’s Market. Except of course onions, tomatoes and potatoes. Those really need to be home grown.

She goes for a 30 minute walk every day with her husband Jon. They count cats. The highest count so far in their walks is thirteen. A few cats are becoming friends.