Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elizabeth Petters . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Elizabeth , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

Everyone wants to leave a beautiful legacy, right? We want to live meaningful, relevant, rich lives. But something that I’ve been learning is that often the best legacy that we can leave happens in the mundane spaces of life.

I want to be a voice to those spaces. A place where others can come and breathe deep, knowing that they are not alone. No matter the way that I am creating I want it to lead to healing, for myself and for others.

Elizabeth , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been a creator, for as long as I can remember. When I was first learning to write I would spend hours creating worlds and characters, acting out their story in my head and transcribing the scenes onto paper. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized the real power of words. Words can bring us together and tear us a part.

Over the last few years I’ve begun writing more vulnerably about my struggles with OCD, my deconstruction of a lifelong faith, the journey of motherhood. Why weren’t more people talking about hard things? I wondered. The more I shared, the more I found that I wasn’t alone. This little community became alive with others, just like me.

This Spring my co-host and I launched a podcast called the Deconstructing Mamas to talk about our faith journey, healing from trauma, learning to love ourselves. I am so proud of that space. It’s a unique place where people who have grown up in rigid faith traditions that they found harmful can learn to heal and access their true selves. While some of the content centers around parenting our children while healing our own wounds, so much of it is about learning how to parent ourselves the way we deserve.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being a creative has been so healing for me. I find that my creativity skips around based on my internal need. For a season I might be writing voraciously, and then the next season I’m in a play, then maybe the next I have a bunch of furniture in refinishing in the garage. It’s a wonderful dance when we can follow our creativity where it leads.

I used to think that I had to choose one thing to build my life on, but I’m realizing that it all matters. Yes, writing is often my main focus, but that doesn’t mean the rest goes down the drain. I do my best to listen to my soul and the direction it’s pulling me at different times of my life.

When nothing else makes sense, I automatically fall back on some form of creative expression.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was diagnosed with OCD and generalized anxiety disorder when I was still in elementary school. It was a struggle. By the time I was high school I was checking out of life, it all felt too hard. My parents found my a program hiking in the blue ridge mountains for two months. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Sleeping under a tent I made myself, hiking day in and day out, no showers, cooking dried ingredients over a fire I started with a fire starting set I made out of wood. I look back on that time and I wish I could tell younger me how far we’ve come, that we made it. I’ve always had this spark of hope inside of me, a fierce determination to get through struggle.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elizabethpetters.com
• Instagram: lizzennspetters
• Facebook: Lizz Enns Petters, The Deconstructed Mama https://m.facebook.com/2152558971732193/
• Twitter: eepetters

Image Credits
Tyler Ryan Studio