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ep 35 – Liz Murphy

You are listening to the InKinship podcast, a podcast for makers, makers who crave a vibrant, joy filled life on their own terms. And I’m your host, Tina Vandenberg. Today I have the pleasure of talking with Liz Murphy, who I have been following online for a long time.

And you know, whenever you say a sentence like that, you always feel a little bit stalker ish, but I think you know what I mean by that. Liz, welcome to the show. Thank you. I’m so glad to be here. Yay! So when I first saw Liz online, she was selling knitting patterns for cowls and knits and things like that, I believe.

And also talking a bit about her family’s homesteading and tiny house living. Was it off the grid as well? All of which are things that I find really fascinating. So I love to follow her. I also just loved the energy that she put out there. I would describe Liz. I’m going to put you on the spot. I would describe Liz from what I know of her as somebody who’s really grounded, earthy, kind, and authentic.

And I just resonate with that so much. And so, I’ve always loved following her. And then about a year and a half ago, maybe she put out this email that just made my jaw drop. So she went from, um, in such a vulnerable, authentic way, she went from saying, you know, here I am selling knitting patterns to, Hey, I have this new venture in life and I don’t really know how to say this, but here’s what I’m doing.

And she announced that she was now offering mediumship services. And I thought it was incredibly brave. To offer something sort of woo woo, right? Yeah, especially from someone who I consider, um, Not, not that I knew you deeply to say whether you were Wu adjacent or not, but somebody who I considered really grounded in herself.

And obviously some judgments are coming up into that. And I definitely am very Wu myself, but I thought what a brave, beautiful thing to put out to all the people who’ve been following you in one vein and be like, I’m actually going to start doing something very different. And if you’d like to join me, here’s how.

So I did take up that call, and I had a reading with Liz last summer that was absolutely amazing, and I want to talk about that in a minute, but before we do that, and before we talk about Mediumship, will you describe to us the Liz that I first met online, what you were doing, what you were doing with your homestead, and who that person was?

Absolutely. So, and that was so nice to hear. I’m getting better at taking compliments. So thank you. I like that. Um, yeah. So I started knitting when my kids were really little, just as, you know, something to do something to keep my brain active. I mean, I’m sure you know how that is with little kids. Um, you know, just to break up the monotony and do something just for myself.

So I taught myself to knit. I’d already known known how to crochet but Um, had wanted to learn how to knit so taught myself to knit and I really didn’t, I’m not good at following rules or patterns. I like to think of patterns as rules and I’m not good at that. So I, I really figured out how to make my own.

I think it was like through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books. I had come across those and, and I was like, Oh, this is great. I can do my own thing. And so that’s what I did. And I turned, I, people, you know, I was posting about it online, on the blog, things like that. And people were like, Oh, can you make that for me?

Sure. You know? And so I started making things for people, um, that quickly sort of took over my life. And. Full time knitting and not so thrilled about that. So I forgot that you sold actually finished goods as well. Yeah. Like the hand dyed custom thing. Yeah. So that got to be kind of too much. Um, between homeschooling and raising kids and all of that.

So I decided that I was going to write up the patterns instead and I would sell those. And that was fabulous. Um, I had a great time with that. I just had, you know, maybe a few quarter dozen patterns that I sold over the years. Um, and yeah, that was, it was fabulous. We did, you know, in, in between we did like handmade soaps and tree branch ornaments and other things.

Um, just to, to mix it up and, you know, do something creative, but, um, yeah, yeah. Very nice. When I first stumbled upon you online, I think it was shortly after, excuse me, I should say, it was shortly after I first stumbled upon you online that you were, had purchased property in Northern Wisconsin and you were considering moving to it.

Can you talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. So we, I had built this business up to be, you know. Reasonable income, not, you know, we weren’t getting rich by any means, but, um, it was during that time that we really had decided I was working in the evenings. My husband was working in the day. So that we didn’t have to put our kids in daycare at any time.

Someone was always home, but we were never seeing each other. And we kind of had come to this place where it’s like, you know, is this really the life that we want to have? And just kind of brainstormed what we could do. And we were loving this idea of homesteading. Um, you know, had, I was fangirling over other homesteading websites, you know, too.

And just like, oh, this looks, the simple life looks just fabulous. Um, so we started making changes in our own life at the time, um, just to kind of ease into that. And we did buy property. It took a long time to find something that we could afford, but we, um, we did buy property. And yeah, and then in 2000, I think it was 14, we sold everything.

We quit our jobs. We sold everything. Um, and moved out to this land and we, we lived in a camper. A pop up camper with five of us and a cat and a dog, right? And you had three, you have three boys, right? Yeah. I had three boys home with us at the time. They were, you know, like eight, 10 and 16 or something. Um, yeah, yeah.

And, and it was, it was the scariest thing we’ve ever done, but it was the best thing we’ve ever done. Yeah, I remember packing everything up into a 26 foot U Haul. We had, we’d literally gotten rid of like 98 percent of our things. Um, and everything we packed into this 26 foot U Haul, it included like recycled building materials that we were using to build our house with.

Um, so it wasn’t just all of our stuff, but we got there and we didn’t necessarily think this out. The best in advance. You know, if I had to do it over again, I do a few things different, but whatever. Um, we showed up, we had nowhere to put all this stuff. I don’t know what we were thinking. We had no shed, no barn, no nothing.

And so we unpacked it. Well, I, I should back up the first day we got there. It was pouring rain and Mike and I were unloading this, this youth hall in the rain and we were both just crying. We’re like, what did we do? Um, yeah, it was, it was a moment. I’m sure. And so we, we unpacked everything, you know, had it under a tarp.

Um, obviously because we had no shelter for a lot of things we lost. Um, and that was really hard to, at the time to sort of reconcile. Um, but it, it really, it really makes you see what’s of value. Um, and what matters, because in hindsight, none of it mattered, you know, it was just stuff. Um, it was the memories we had attached to things, you know, it was like furniture that was my grandparents.

Um, stuff like that, that at the time it was just devastating. But, you know, looking back, it’s like, that’s not them. You know, the memories that I hold are still there, whether that stuff is there or not, so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can relate to that. I am. I’ve had a couple of different house fires in my life, and so I have nothing from childhood.

I should say my parents were, so I have some things that were at my mom’s house because that house did not burn down, but my dad’s house burned down. So, and that’s where we lived when we were really little. So all of our things were there, like all of our, like my little record player that I would roller skate in the basement too.

All of that was there. So all of that got lost. And, um, And maybe it’s because I’m 46 too. But the other day I was thinking about, uh, pictures and how I’d never print any out. I don’t have photo albums. And I was kind of like, you know, it doesn’t even really matter because I have all of those memories in my DNA somewhere.

Right. Like in my body somewhere. And it doesn’t like, do I like looking at pictures sometimes and seeing and remembering? Yeah. But it’s also just okay. Yeah. It’s incredibly freeing to not need the things. Yeah. Um, yeah. I agree. I agree. Okay. So it’s pouring rain. You’re like, what on earth did we just do?

You’ve got this whole menagerie of people in pets, you’re living in a camper and you built a small home by hand. Did the two of you build it or all five of you should say, well, I mean, they were pretty young. They helped as much as they could. They were like eight and 10. And, um, this actually the 16 year old was a lot of help.

Yeah. Good. muscle. Right. Yeah. Um, it took forever. It is only 16 by 16. So it’s tiny. You know, we thought, Oh, we’ll have this up in two weeks. Tops. You know, if there’s bad weather, it’ll be two weeks. Tops. We had no, I no construction experience, no idea. We literally like drew it out on a piece of paper and then went to the lumber yard and said, okay, this is what we think we need.

And you know, if we need more, we’ll be back. Um, yeah. And so there were some like issues with delivery of materials that things got lost and it ended up being like three months and it got into October. We moved out there, I believe in June or July, it ended up being October before we actually got the thing we’ve been framed in, um, Yeah, and you know, panicking because we have snow in October here, so it was getting cold and like our Children are going to die if we don’t do something and so we, we scurried we ended up, we ended up making it happen.

Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. No, you know, there was a cheat rock on the balls, but there was insulation and, and, you know, we had a, we had a little place to live and, oh my gosh, that first year was amazing. How so what, what is your most fond memory of that first year? Um, just really being together every single day.

Um, getting to spend that time together. And it was fabulous because we weren’t, you know, working traditional jobs anymore. We, we could wake with the sun, you know, we could move with the seasons and the days just really flowed naturally. Um, it was fascinating, you know, when it gets dark at four o’clock and you’re tired, you go to bed at six o’clock and it’s, it was bizarre, but.

Fabulous. Um, at the same time now don’t get me wrong. It was really hard to really hard living with no water and no electricity in the middle of Northern Wisconsin in the wintertime is it’s hard. Yeah. Where did you get water from? Uh, just like the local Walmart has those water stations and you fill five gallon jugs and yeah.

Yeah. And then do you, you can obviously be like, I’m not going to answer this question if you don’t want to, but like, where did you bathe and things like that? How did you manage that? Yeah. So the bathing was tricky the first year, first year, maybe two years. Um, we did like little house on the prairie style, like a bucket.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then we discovered like, then we, we bought a gym membership after that. Um, Yeah. Cause I had discovered online like how other people were doing it and they were just going to the gym and I was like, Oh, that’s way better for sure. Yeah. And then we, we found the local hotel actually after that would let us like pay a monthly fee and we could just use the pool so the kids could swim.

We can have it be kind of an outing day. Um, get, you know, little kids get their energy out and then we get a shower too. Yeah, you know, this is so interesting because, you know, I’ve lived several different times in my life, um, partially off grid and fully off grid for short periods of time, like a year, two years at the most.

So, we were at the local hotel, which has a pool, in which we, by membership, Excuse me, what should we buy a membership for for the winter so that we can do the hot tub and go swimming and Obviously, we’re in northern michigan very similar to northern wisconsin as far as temperatures and whatnot and we were there this last February I guess and there was a family a mother with like three little kids there and they’re all like You could just tell like something was different about like they’re there, like they’re swimming, they’re all bathing, like the whole shebang.

And, and I ended up talking to her and she’s like, yeah, this is where we come. We’re off grid. And she was really, she was in the moment, really overwhelmed with all of the bits and pieces of it. Cause it’s a lot. And her husband was out of town working for long periods of time. And so she actually had that, um, she was also a mother to very young children, but she had that.

I know that, you know what I’m talking about, that like, I’m drowning sense to her, but also like this beautiful most absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there’s these feelings to that you have to sort of overcome of, there’s this, the way that society says we should be living. And so, when you have to go to somewhere else to shower, you kind of have this homeless feeling that comes with that, even though you’re not.

So there’s a lot of these sort of internal things that come up with the process as well. Yeah. That sense of belonging that we have that, that makes us sort of told the line of society is so strong. And so to choose a path that’s outside of it requires, um, constant recalibrating to that life. I think.

Yeah, we had, we, we re right away, we came up with kind of this north star of, You know, like we really want to live connected to each other and the earth. And so every decision that we made had to be made around that. And it is, there was a lot of like, you know, stuff where you had to really redirect back to that because it is easy to, to make decisions that, that feel easy.

And it’s not always easy. Yeah. Right. Listen, I were just talking before the podcast started how my little house has a mini slate, which has air conditioning. And I live in Northern Michigan, which you really don’t need air conditioning for all that often. But my little house gets, it’s like a little greenhouse.

It’s got like 11 windows. It gets really hot in there. And so when it first arrived, I was like, I need AC. And now I’m like, this is kind of nice. And how easy it is to fall into that, the comforts of those things. Yeah, it is. It is. So how long did you homestead at the property? So we lived there full time for two.

We came in, like, let’s say June so we did like to do. Yeah, yeah, to June so like two summers basically. Um, yeah, and then you want me to talk about what happened after that? I do. I do. Yeah. Yeah. How did you shift? Because this was a dream, right? Like this is what you wanted. You were excited. You were fangirling over the homesteading properties.

You had a little business that you really enjoyed, I would assume. Yeah. And you shifted. We did. Yeah. I mean, this, this was a dream that we had for a long, like we’ve paid off debt to get here, you know, we worked really hard to make this happen. My grandparents grew up on a farm and I always loved it. So even as a kid, I knew like, this was something in my future.

I didn’t know how, but I knew it was something that I really wanted. Um, you know, shifted our whole life. You know, uprooted our children and, and jobs and all of that. So yeah, so after like a, let’s just say the second year, I wish I’d have written like, well, I’m glad I have the blog because otherwise I forget everything, but I think it’s about two years.

Um, Etsy sort of tanked, they, they had a new CEO and everything shifted, um, with this new CEO to really. Less handmade, I want to say, and more overseas, you know, finished products, things like that. And the culture really shaped, changed on Etsy. Um, and that’s where you were selling your goods and your, yeah, yeah.

Everything was through Etsy. Um, some Ravelry too, but you know, the bulk of it was Etsy. Um, which was an amazing platform, you know, in the beginning to start. So I don’t ever want to bash them because. You know, it was fabulous. Um, but I, they went public. Um, and so I think the priorities shifted and changed a lot.

Um, and at least for me, I know it affected a lot of people that, you know, we’re making a living off of them, um, or through the platform, it affected everyone. So I, you know, I felt better that it wasn’t just me and something that, you know, I wasn’t capable of or whatever, but, um, our income basically disappeared.

You know, it wasn’t a lot, but when you don’t have a mortgage or phone bills or anything, you know, it’s, it was plenty more than enough. Um, but when we were down to like our last 20 in our bank account, we said something, something has to happen. Yeah, this is, this, you know, it’s not sustainable. So. Mike had my husband, Mike had, um, applied for a job, um, that was going to be local, it was going to be amazing money, more money than we had ever made even before this, um, but it was going to be a lot of hours and we kind of said, you know, we have to do something.

And this was what was available. It’s a tiny town of like a thousand peoples and we’re in the middle of nowhere. So the options are really limited. If you don’t want to drive two hours to go to work. Um, and one day my husband and his cousin went fishing. Um, they had an issue with the boat. The battery wouldn’t start or something.

Um, and yeah, and so the, the camp house there, they went and said, you know, do you have a battery charger we can use? And he said, Oh, you know, just take my battery, bring it back at the end of the day, kind of a thing. And. So they just got to chatting at the end of the day, and the guy was like, you know, I think they were chatting about probably, like, being a camp host, all of that sort of stuff.

And to clarify, for those of you who might not know, so a camp host is somebody who attends the campground and stays at the campground full time, correct? Correct. Um, and Mike was like, well, that sounds amazing. And he’s like, well, we, you know, there’s another park in the park system that actually needs one.

They, somebody just quit like mid season and they’re desperate to find someone. Um, didn’t necessarily pay as well as this other job, but, you know, it, it really fit the life we were trying to create where we could still live outdoors connected to the earth. Definitely, you know, we could all live here together and get paid to do it.

Um, so it was a really hard decision because it meant that we had to get rid of all of our animals. We had chickens and turkeys and rabbits and, um, you know, had plans for sheep and goats and all of that. Um, and you were still in the midst of like building the house. Yeah. Yeah. We were still trying to finish the house.

Right. Um, because we were doing it like one board at a time, um, we didn’t want to take out a loan and have debt. So we were, we were really bugging away at it. Um, yeah. And you know, it, it became a real easy decision real fast once we sort of, you know, had gone back to that North star and yeah, yeah. So we did that.

So tell me what it was like to raise boys while being a campground host. I’m assuming it was on a lake. Yes. You’re there all the time, primarily, or at least through the season, I should say, and probably it wasn’t open in the winter. But what was it like to raise boys at a campground? Yeah. So our oldest one had moved out by this time.

Um, he, he struggled the most with the move. Um, he was 16 at the time. And so he was like, I’m done living in a tiny house with you people. I’m, when he was 18, he moved out, which was totally understandable. Right. Um, yeah, so it was, it was just the two of them. We still had the pop up camper. So the first year, so it was very, still again, very close borders.

Um, and we didn’t have the dog. The dog had passed away in between, so we didn’t have the dog at the time, um, which did help a little bit. You had cats. Uh, no. And we didn’t have cats by then either. Okay. Yeah. We had farm cats, so we were going home to feed the farm cats, which was insane. Yeah. Great. So you were living at the campground, the four of you, and you’re still going back to 10, the homestead to some degree.

Yeah, we did. We, we decided that first year to keep the animals. Um, and we were going back like every other day, which was an hour drive each way. So, yeah. Um, but raising boys at the campground, I mean, it’s just, it’s been amazing. Um, we spent all of our free time camping and, you know, really at the park where my husband was fishing and met the camp host, we spent most of our free time there anyway.

Yeah. Um, which is strange that we had never met him before, but you know, I just leave that up to me. I know I’m like, Oh, I love it when like, yeah, it just unfolds the most beautiful way. It does. Um, and so it was just, I mean, it’s just magical, you know, it was, it was really easy to live here because there is, there isn’t like water hookups to our camper, but there’s water here.

So it was easy to, you know, access and. Having electricity again was amazing. I’m not gonna lie. Right, right. Um, how long have you guys been at the campground as campground hosts? How many years have you done? This is our ninth summer. Ninth? Did you just say? I know, nine years. Yeah. Wow. That’s amazing. So Liz and I talked, um, last year, cause I did a reading with her and I think we just talked in general too, cause we decided that we really liked one another.

I’m going to say that. And uh, and oh, I just lost it. I lost what I was going to say. Okay. Well, we’ll go back to nine years. So nine years. And when we, when I have talked to you in the past, I know that like, this is a beautiful Life that you absolutely love and what do you do then in the winter? Where do you spend your time?

Give us a layout of what the year looks like for you now. So we work from April until November here at the campground. Um, yeah. And so like the 1st of November, we go home for six weeks. Um, to our homestead. Yeah. Because just because I love to, I love being there to just like really shut everything down.

Um, and just be and not have to do anything for anybody. We just get to, you know, really connect with the land. Um, and, and, yeah, it’s just wonderful. Um, I don’t know that I could ever give that part up. We kind of had talked about it this year, but I said, I don’t think I can do it. I, yeah. Um, so after that December 1st or the end of November, we leave and we go south to Florida.

Um, we take like a week to get there. So we travel around and we try to go to new places every single time along the way. Um, yeah. And then we rent a little house. No, I shouldn’t say little house. It’s a nice house. Um, Comparatively speaking, that’s probably, yeah. Yeah. Um, we rent a nice house in Florida. It has a pool.

Um, and we just, we just chill and relax and really enjoy ourselves in the winter time. Yeah. And then you come back up and yeah, so we make our way home. Yeah, the last month. So in like from March to mid March to mid April, because we have to come back here kind of towards the end of April. Um, and I lost.

Oh, there it goes. Um, the last month there we always go somewhere new sort of on the way home. So. The last two years, we went to like North Carolina. We stayed in the mountains and a little cottage in North Carolina. Um, and then last year we went to South Carolina to Myrtle Beach and we stayed in a, a beautiful little condo in Myrtle Beach on the, on the beach.

And yeah, yeah. We just try, we keep it fresh, try to do new things every year. Do you know what I love about this? I love that one. That you had the bravery to pivot, to like sort of let go of what was a dream. Cause it can be so hard to let go of that. Like I find myself shifting out of something that I’ve wanted for a very long time and choosing something else can be hard for me in my life.

And I think that I’m not probably alone in that. So I think that’s amazing that you had the bravery to do that. And I also really love that you have this sort of nomadic lifestyle and yet you have The sense of safety or security that comes from having a rooted place, not only your homestead, but also the campground that you go back to.

And probably the spaces that you go back to in Florida. Like when I was in my very early twenties, I moved to Alaska and I have a. Definite strong travel bug, but I realized that for me, I think that’s why this is so appealing to me. For me, I both love having the wings to travel and explore and having a place to come and ground myself into.

And that sounds like that’s what you found this really beautiful balance of that. Yeah. Yeah. The thing in Florida was really, we, the first couple of years, we kind of bounced around. Um, and we realized that the kids really needed a little bit of stability. Um, you know, they’re, they’re so good. They’re very resilient and flexible.

Um, you know, and they, they love what we do too. You know, if they ever said that they didn’t like it, we would have, you know, we would have changed something. Um, but they really needed the stability. So we ended up staying at the same place in Florida every year. And it is. It really does help to feel grounded.

Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Okay. So that brings us up to that faded email that I mentioned Little ominous that I mentioned at the beginning of the show that email where you announced that you were no longer going to sell Knitting patterns that you had this This thing that you weren’t even sure how to talk about, but here it was, um, and that is mediumship.

Can you share, um, I don’t know if you recall that email. I’m guessing you do, but I do. Can you, can you share that email with us? Can you share the feeling behind it? When you were sitting there, you’re going to put this out to the world. You’ve got all these people that, that follow you and we’re part of your community.

And here you are like, And by the way, I talked to dead people, which is not what you said probably, but you know, kind of where we’re close. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, I, I guess I have to back up from that a little bit because my sister in law had passed away in 2019. Um, she’d had cancer for a really long time.

Um, and she and I were actually best friends and she was how I met my husband. It’s my husband’s sister. Um, and. So it was kind of after that, I really lost interest in all the creative stuff. Um, I just, I really didn’t care about it anymore. It just, it seemed kind of pointless and meaningless, you know, and as people who’ve been through grief can understand that it happens to a lot of people.

Um, and so I really like, wasn’t emailing my list. I, there were thousands of people on this list, um, but I hadn’t emailed them probably in a few years. And through this, through this time period, I had discovered mediumship. Um, and yeah, so I, I, I was like, trying to sort of reconcile how to let go of this knitting business.

Um, and also I know that this is a little bit weird for other people. It feels very normal to me, but I know that this is like, you know, not normal for most people. So, um, like how to tell people What I was doing, um, I was scared to death how people would react to it because I know how people react to it.

Um, um, and I get it, I get it. Um, and so, but at the same time, I really, this felt like what I was supposed to do with my life. And so I needed to really be myself and be me and put, you know, tell people I didn’t, I know that probably the 4, 000 people that are on my list probably don’t ever think about me on a day to day basis.

I, you know, I understand that, but I felt like I owed something to those people to give closure, maybe just to myself, to give myself closure around it. Um, a lot of these people had followed me like you had for years and years and years. Um, and you know, with touch base and wondering how things are going and what I’m doing.

So I, I, I did feel like a little bit of obligation to let people know, but, um, yeah. So I, I was nervous as all heck and, but I just, I felt like it was something I needed to do. And I thought, well, whoever it resonates with, um, I guess I, I think I offered like free readings for like so many people, I think is what it was.

Um, and I thought, well, whoever needs this and finds their way to it, um, so be it. And if, if other people don’t agree and don’t understand, then that’s their journey and their path too. And that’s totally okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I was one of those people who I read it and I, again, like I said, I thought that it was so brave because I know what it’s like to have sort of an online persona to some degree and an online presence.

And, um, I also understand, like you mentioned before, how hard it can be to sort of walk a different path. And to continually have to like shore yourself up on that different path. And so I read that email and like I said, it was done so authentically and so deeply. And I thought, wow, that is so brave. And I.

I don’t, I didn’t know what I believed about, um, speaking with my loved ones who have gone before, but I knew that it was very intriguing. And I signed up for one of those free spots and I, you and I talked and we had this experience that I can’t explain. I can’t say what exactly happened. There’s just no words, are there?

No, there’s not like we talked to two, actually three. We talked to my dog too, which was really strange. But, um, we talked to, so three, let’s just say three souls in my past. And the information that you had that you shared with me was information that nobody else would have known that you and I did not discuss, didn’t talk about.

And it just gave me such a sense of peace and such a sense of like, beauty, a peace. A person in my past who I, who I was with as a partner for six years in my twenties had just passed away. And we talked with him and I had, I remember I’m like crying in our reading, cause I had always had this question of why something had happened the way it did.

And, and you just all of a sudden popped out with, here’s what, here’s what happened in this situation. And I was like, oh my goodness. And it just, it was so powerful. And I, um, It’s still sometimes hard for me to wrap my head around because you and I talked in the reading a bit about, you know, where, where do you believe that people are after they have passed on?

And so, and you and I had that conversation and I, when I’m grounded and I can sit in it, I can see what we talked about and I can see how that is it. Right. But then when I’m like moving through life really quickly, I sort of just forget. And then of course there was also this little part of me that’s like, hold on.

So like, My grandma and my ex boyfriend, they’re all seeing me shower every day. Like what’s going on here. And then, and then it was like, you know, like my little ego gets out of the way. And it’s like, I don’t think it’s quite like that exactly. Nor do they probably care. They don’t care. Of course, it’s a nice little shower, you know.

So it was, um, it was really amazing. And it was, uh, I’m so grateful for the work that you’re doing. I’m grateful for the, um, the grounded deep way in which you do it.

Yeah. Can you share and tell me no, if you can’t, I should have asked you this before the call, but when we had the reading, you shared with me your experience with, I think it was your grandfather. Can you share that with us on the call today or something? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, when I, I’ve always been able to see here and feel spirit.

They’ve always been around me, since as far back as I can remember, I didn’t understand it. I only knew about spirit through scary movies and, you know, like Goosebumps books and things like that. So everything was terrifying to me. Um, and I was also an atheist. So I was really struggling my whole life to sort of reconcile the two.

Um, yeah, I still struggle with it a little bit. Um, yeah. Yeah. Cause it is. It’s like, how is this possible? Anyway. Um, one night, well, this was all part of my sister’s passing. Um, it really sent me on a personal healing journey, um, just to, you know, it’s, again, it was sort of, what do I want? You know, she died at 39.

So it’s sort of like, okay, if this can happen, like, what do I want my life to look like You know, from here going forward. Um, so there was a lot of, you know, stuff from childhood that I decided, you know, I was tired of carrying forward with me. I, I worked on that, worked through all of that. Um, there was a lot of grief in my life that I realized that I had not ever really addressed.

Um, I lost my grandma really young. I lost, and she wasn’t ever very close. I lost, uh, twins in pregnancy about 20 years ago now. Um, And so there were lots of friends throughout my life. Um, and so there was stuff that, you know, we just, as a society, we aren’t taught how to, how to move through grief, um, or deal with that.

It’s just, you know, get over it and move on kind of a thing. Um, and so I worked through a lot of that and during that time. The thing with my grandpa was, well, I guess I should back up a little bit again. Um, I had what we call a sort of in the spiritual community, a spiritual awakening. Um, my husband and I were sitting as we do very often talking about religion and, um, sort of like, how is this possible?

How can I see and feel and hear these things? And, you know, not believe in God. Um, and one day I think he was a little bit frustrated with me because You know, I talked about it a lot, but he’s like, well, what if you just like surrendered to the possibility that there’s something more than nothing? And cause he’s kind of on the same boat as I am, but it was like, for whatever reason that just came out of his mouth that day and I was like, Oh, you know, and I like actually accepted that possibility.

Um, and I’m going to sound like a crazy person, but when I did that, when I made that decision within myself. Um, I could see, it was like, it was, I want to call it like the Twilight movies where, you know, like when the vampires are around and, and everything sparkles, it was like that. Wow. Like around every leaf and, and what I realized is that it’s energy, um, but I was able to see the energy of every single leaf, every piece of grass, every rock.

And it like, there was this vibration around it. Um, and it was really strange and beautiful all at the same time. Um, and it lasted a couple days and then it went away, thank God, because it was exhausting. Um, and, and just like really threw my mind for a loop. But then not too shortly after that, I was laying in bed one night.

I was like, watching a movie on Netflix, um, on my phone. And all of a sudden there was, I, I want to just call it like a movie in front of the movie is the best way I can describe it. The movie was in, I want to say it was in my mind, but it looked like there were two screens in front of each other. Um, and my grandfather who had passed.

Like five years before that, um, came to me and he was like in this movie and there were some other people that I knew and they were being very quiet. And I realized, you know, in hindsight, what was happening was because I was terrified of spirits. So they were trying not to scare me, I think. Um, but they were like, just sort of like kind of quietly creeping in and there was this sort of scene going on.

And. Um, with spirit that I’ve seen before and could hear before, I didn’t know that I could talk to them and have a conversation with them. I thought it was me just experiencing this. Um, and he started talking to me and in my head I answered him and then the conversation continued and it was like, what the heck, um, yeah.

So what was really significant about this is that my grandfather was very religious, believed in heaven and hell, you know, all of that. Um, and we would, we, we did have a really big argument at one point and didn’t talk to each other for about 10 years. Um, yeah. And I always regretted it and he, I know we regretted it.

Um, Before he passed, we were able to talk, but we weren’t really able to reconcile that relationship. Um, and I, I just, you know, I always felt really bad about that because he and I were close too. So in this sort of scene that I was having, um, he was telling me that it’s not what you think it is or what you thought it was, but it’s not what I thought it was even.

And so we came to this really beautiful. Place where we were, you know, just meeting in the middle, um, and really healed that relationship and we’ve been able to have a relationship now going forward. Um, which I know if we don’t know anything about mediumship, that sounds really strange. Um, but we have, I would say that, and, and this goes for all of the people that have passed in my life.

We have a stronger relationship now than, We ever had in this physical life. Um, so it’s really, really beautiful. And it’s, it’s, it’s, I guess that’s the reason that I do this work is because it, it was so incredibly powerfully healing for myself that I just, I want to give that opportunity to anyone who’s in need and offering, you know, step forward for that.

So, yeah, I love it. The other day I was, um, cause like, like I shared earlier, like I, sometimes my head gets in the way of like how to connect with people who have gone before. And I found it really interesting that once you accepted the possibility that, that something else could exist than what you thought, then the world opened up to some degree.

For you to see something different. And I thought, wow, we are our own blocks in the world, you know, like in so many ways, not just this way, but like, we are our own blocks. So that’s so intriguing. So I am a person who’s like, okay, but how does this work? I want to understand how this works. Like, what, what do I need to do for this to happen?

What, how, how, how, how, right? All this stuff. And the. So sometimes I think about Matt, this man that I spent my, most of my 20s with, who passed away, and I, um, I’ll be thinking of him, and think about like, you and I talked in my reading, how I can still continue to have a relationship with him, and just that it would be different.

And I was like, but how, how, how? And then, just like last week, I think it was, or the week before, I, it came to my mind, And it, I can’t explain it, but all of a sudden I’m like, Oh, that’s not what I’m going to do. You are crazy. Like, like we were having this banter and I’m like, I’m not sure where it came from.

I don’t know if it makes, I don’t know if this is translating well to the podcast, but. I started laughing out loud over what he had said, sort of in my head. And I’m like, wow, that’s so intriguing. Cause, and then of course, you know, we second guess ourselves and I’m like, am I just a little bit insane? I actually just imagine that this had occurred, but it was just such a natural exchange.

And I thought, Oh, and of course it like, Draws back that feeling of like, just allowing, like as a person who wants to know how, but how do I get from here to there? How do I get this? How do I do this? How do I, how, how, how, like just allowing it to be in the, it will just exist. And I think of that a lot when you share your story about the dream, shifting the dream and pivoting out of the business you had out of the homestead to some degree, although you still own it.

And. The life that you really love now and like the bravery it takes to just allow life to unfold that way and not hang on to, one, all the instructions for how to get there, but also like the things that we had, like the things that you lost under the tarp, like all of that, right? Like, it’s such a beauty when we just open up and allow.

Absolutely. Yeah, I love that. Liz, this has been so wonderful. I could talk to you more. I know. Yep. So tell us how long, I know I just told you that we just, we’re just gonna allow life to unfold, and now I’m like, so how long are you gonna be at the campground, do you think? , what do you see for the future? Do you see it?

Yeah. No, I, I call this like our retirement fund because this is a kind of job that we could do for a really long time. Yeah. Um, I love the stability of this place. I love the people here. And the work that I do. So, you know, who knows? You never know what’s going to come in your path. But, you know, and that’s the beauty of it is that I love just being open to whatever happens.

But for the foreseeable future and we plan to be here for a long time. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Because to me it feels like, you know, cause obviously when we engage with somebody, there’s a resonance for our own life. Right. It’s like, can I sort of bring that back to like, how do we feel? But I, I love, like I said, the bravery and that ability to sort of let go of ownership to some degree.

Right. Cause you are, You don’t own the land in which you’re currently living, which for a lot of people would feel unsafe and secure in some way. I would guess you get some security from the fact that you still have the homestead and that if anything, if the world imploded in some way and you no longer could be where you’re at, you have this place that is yours.

Um, is that how you feel about that? Yeah, a hundred percent. Um, it really gives us the freedom to do whatever we want. Um, because like you said, you know, if. If the place we rent were to, you know, disappear and they sold it, or, you know, for some reason it became out of our financial ability to rent something.

Um, yeah, we just go home and, and it’s just as good there as it is anywhere else. Right. Yeah. Right. Isn’t that an interesting realization to come to too, but it’s just there isn’t anywhere else. I mean, it’s beautiful to have experiences and be able to be like, I just picture you guys at the lake, The boy is probably fishing a lot and like, or maybe you fish.

I don’t know. At my fishing involves books. Generally. A lot of times it depends what kind of fishing is happening. If it’s fast fishing, then it’s very boring and slow. And yeah, there’s a lot of books. Yes, exactly. So I picture all those things, but ultimately, um, this is something that’s really been coming into my consciousness lately.

A lot is that like life is good. If I choose it to be. Yeah. We’ve always really lived by the philosophy of life is what you make of it, um, always. And so you get to choose, you know, it’s sometimes it’s scary, but you always get to choose what you want your life to look like. Um, even with 20 in my pocket, I still got to choose how I looked at life, you know, in that moment.

Um, and anything is possible, like just anything is possible, right? Um, yeah. And, and I do always. It took a while. I would say really like sort of about the time that time frame of the 20 in the pocket. Um, it’s everything works out. Um, you know, nothing’s really worth getting upset about because it always works out.

Um, and once I really embraced that in that moment. You can see that unfold throughout everything. And so there really isn’t any fear. Um, but you do have to step out and put yourself in there and, and really truly believe it to be true because otherwise, you know, having three kids to raise with 20 in your pocket is terrifying.

Right. But if you really just trust that everything’s going to work out the way it’s supposed to, it always has. Yeah. And, and I think part of it is because we were willing to take risks and put ourselves out there and pivot, um, if we need to, but. . Yeah. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. So I divorced, uh, two years ago and I just found the property that I’m on this last November, well actually last August, and then I got a well and all the things put onto it and moved in December, January, excuse me, November, December.

This does not matter. Before then, I was incredibly stressed because I have a little boy and I’m like, where are we going to live? And I just. Um, had come out of this autoimmune thing that I had. And I just felt like my sense of safety was very much rattled. And, um, randomly we’re at the park and this dad of another little boy, he had asked me where I was living and I was like, Oh, I can’t find property.

And I was like, I think my stress was like palatable. I think you could like feel it. Right. And he’s like, you know, and he didn’t look like this particularly like. enlightened human, which isn’t fair of me to say at all, but like, and we didn’t even talk all that much. He just had this like one sentence really to say to me, he’s like, you know, things always have a way of working out.

And they like moved on to something else. And I like, like physically moved on. And I was like, they do. Thank you. It was beautiful. It’s so good to have you here. If folks want to find out more about you, how can they find you online? I’ll put it in the show notes as well, but yeah, so I’m medium Liz Murphy everywhere on socials, although I’m not super active on socials.

I’m trying to get better about that. But the website is medium was Murphy. Um, I am starting to do teaching and mentoring too, for people who want to learn everybody’s a medium. Um, so if you would like to learn how to connect, or if you feel like you have, and you just want to learn how to grow that, um, yeah, it’s not up on the website yet.

I just started last week. So, um, yeah, I’m super excited. I’ve been working with a few people and it’s, it’s been amazing. So. That is awesome. You know, that would be a great conversation for a whole other podcast. Maybe we’ll get on and do that and talk about, cause I think, I don’t know if anybody listening has had the same feeling, but I certainly, in my past, when I was still trying to find my way and find out what my gifts in the world were and what that was special about me, I guess.

Right. Um, when you hear somebody else, who’s got this really amazing gift, it feels like a little bit like that. Well, what about me? Like, do I have anything right? And I believe just like you do that we all have gifts and I think that we block them in the same sort of way that we talked about earlier. And so that would be an interesting podcast to talk about that feeling around, um, like you’re just a statement that you made, like everyone’s a medium and we all have the ability to tap into this and that, um, that we’re all special.

We are. We are. What makes us special is being uniquely us. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, Lisa had to jump off. We are live here today. And she says, thank you so much to the both of you. It was a beautiful little statement. If anyone else who’s online with us today wants to jump in and chat with us, feel free to do that.

We love to talk with you, or you can put a question in the chat. Um, I didn’t want to jump off without giving the opportunity for that to happen, but. While we wait to see if anybody wants to talk, Liz, what does the rest of your day today look like? Oh, today is going to be quiet. It’s one of those days where, um, I don’t have a lot going on.

I do have, I guess I have a circle this afternoon. Um, so I am, I do run, I run a beginner circle on Mondays and it’s like all levels on Thursdays where people can just come and practice. Um, ask questions. Yeah. In person or virtually? Uh, virtually. Okay. Cause I’m like, how many people in your tiny little town?

Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah. No, no, probably none in my tiny little town. It’s a very conservative town. Um, yeah. Um, Yeah, so I do that twice a week, just, you know, offering holding safe space for people to feel comfortable to come and practice and, and share. And yeah, so I have that this afternoon, but other than that, I have nothing going on.

And it’s really nice. That is really nice. Oh, very nice. Janice says she’s enjoying the conversation and just listening. And thank you Janice. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here Janice. Yeah, it’s beautiful. All right, well, let’s go ahead and sign off for today. Liz, thank you again. If folks want to reach you, that website again is mediumlizmurphy.

com and it will be in the show notes. You’ll be able to click right on it if you want to, but you can also just look her up. I highly recommend it. Um, particularly maybe if you’re a little nervous to the experience as I was. Yeah. Liz has a way of really making it seem

peaceful. Cause I, I will say this right where we hang up. Like if you remember correctly, like, you know, I’m such a squirrel. I am such a squirrel. I truly am. And so. Probably a red squirrel is probably what I am. So we got on the reading and I’m like, What if the people I want to talk to are like, Tina who?

I don’t want to talk to her. Who is she? And Liz, like, she just calmed all my little silly fears and silly being, you know, in the most gentle way possible. Yeah. And your loved ones are always there, always excited to talk to you. There’s no reason they ever cannot talk to you. Yeah. Right. They’re not like, who is she again?

Yeah. I love it. All right, Liz, have the most wonderful day. Thank you all for listening. And I will see you next time. Thanks, Tina. Yeah.