IN LOVE with Monica Moisin

How we met: at a private Sabbath ceremony in a Berlin living room. I wore a traditional Hungarian vest. We talked about the beautiful embroidery. Monica knew A LOT about craftsWomen’s traditions.

It turned out that her mission as a lawyer is to build an initiative that makes sure that craftsWomen are compensated for their traditional designs, garments, and manufacturing techniques.

Within the past four years, Monica has poured her heart, gifts, knowledge, and time into what today is the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® - an organization built around Monica’s mission to preserve and honor traditions.

You can’t but grow and self-challenge next to a friend like Monica. 

After this Sabbath, we kept meeting on the bridge at Museumsinsel (not far from where these pictures were taken) in the evenings until Monica moved to Sweden. 

We developed something that we call: holding the vision for each other. Seeing the big picture of where we want to go in life. Sharing this picture we hold for the other, especially when the other has a hard time seeing 

Monica calls me out. With honesty and a generous heart. Sometimes it hurts. It hurts because she says something that carries truth in it. And through the hurt, I grow. I respect her deeply for doing this.

This summer, I visited her in Bihor, Romania, where her family has a holiday house that will soon be the first home of WhyWeCraft.

One day before I left, I couldn’t find my passport. It was simply not there, and we called embassies, went to the police. It would have taken four days for me to get a new passport and return to Berlin. We were both stressed. Late in the afternoon, Monica’s intuition found my passport behind the washing machine. When she drove me to the airport, we had one of these call-out-talks, and I called her out, too. For quite some hundred kilometers, neither she nor I was sure if we would part as friends or forever. It was an intense silence in this car, in the middle of green woods. A train almost hit us on a railroad crossing. When we were approaching the city, we started talking again—this time about the wounds behind our behaviors. 

We had dinner on the floor of our hotel room. And our friendship had reached a deeper level. 

Monica on Instagram

Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative’s ® website

1 _ _ _ _
Imagine that from this moment on, the verb "to love" does not exist anymore. How do you express yourself when you feel love? In words, actions?

Actions. I breathe in the person. I smell their skin and feel its softness with my nose.

2 LOVE
You have lived one month without the word love. Then, it suddenly re-appears, but in the dictionaries it is without definition. You are the person to write it.
The dissolution of ego and complete surrender to a new universe.

3 Out of LOVE: 
Abandonment. Feeling abandoned equals to me to feeling excluded from love. It is a place of no hope and deep emotional suffering. Many actions and words still trigger abandonment for me. I am learning to dissolve the triggers and diminish their power.

4 Returning into LOVE: 
When you have been out of Love, how do you help yourself to re-enter?
I remind myself that my true nature is of being always in love. I am a chronic in-lover and this never completely fades away. I am in love with people, moments, nature’s magic. I sing love songs. I read about love in other cultures and how it is expressed and felt in other cultural contexts.

5 Almost Lovers
Let me start by saying what an almost lover is for me. An almost lover is a person, with whom you feel SO yourself, SO creative, SO in love that you feel - this is my life partner. However, an almost lover does not want to be with you. Did you have an experience like this? And if so - did your almost love story lead to important inner and outer transformations in your life that you are now grateful for? Which are your favorite two ones?
Absolutely. I had many such stories. I am a writer of sorts, so I have often written my almost love stories for myself. I met my first almost lover when I turned 18. We shared a same birthdate but we seemed to exist worlds apart. He inspired me to find myself, to discover who I truly am. For many years his opinions were criticism to my years. But years later, when our paths crossed again, I could hear the music.
Then almost 11 years later I met another almost lover. This time also on my birthday. This human taught me to love with my entire being. With every cell in my body. Today and always he will not cease to be an important part of me.

6 LOVE Quotes: 
There are many love-quotes out there. Which is your favorite one on true romantic love ?

Everything you learn about love is TRUE.