Read My Stories

Reflections from the long middle — stories of illness, endurance,

and the quiet beauty of becoming.

The High Cost of Disappearing

When endurance asks you to vanish before you’re ready.

[Read Story →](https://marymonokyspeaks.com/the-high-cost-of-disappearing)

When the Day Changed Overnight

The morning the map burned, and the world held its breath.

[Read Story →](https://marymonokyspeaks.com/when-the-day-changed-overnight)

Naked in the Dark

What survival feels like at 3:22 a.m.

[Read Story →]https://marymonokyspeaks.com/naked-in-the-dark

The Sounds That Stay

A lyrical reflection on sound, memory, and the way ordinary noises

can anchor us to who we are.

Read Story →https://marymonokyspeaks.com/the-sounds-that-stay

Resilience: A First-Person Reckoning

After surviving hospice, learning to live again without a map.

Coming soon →

What Remains

A reflective piece about quiet resilience, the courage it takes to keep living, and the wisdom that follows survival.

Read Story →What Remains

You Don’t Look Sick
A candid reflection on invisibility, judgment,

and what it really means to live with an illness the world can’t see.

https://marymonokyspeaks.com/you-dont-look-sick

The First Thing I Chose to Love Again

A quiet mediation on rediscovering tenderness after loss--how love returns first in the smallest, most ordinary ways.

https://marymonokyspeaks.com/the-first-thing-i-chose-to-love-again

The Shape Of Ease

A reflection on learning to move through the world gently--finding grace, calm, and balance after years of endurance.

https://marymonokyspeaks.com/the-shape-of-ease

What Illness Taught Me About Story

A craft reflection on how chronic illness reshapes the way we tell stories — teaching patience, presence, and truth over perfection.

https://marymonokyspeaks.com/what-illness-taught-me-about-story

Naked in the Dark

A raw, late-night reckoning with fear, illness, and survival — what the body remembers when the world goes silent.

https://marymonokyspeaks.com/naked-in-the-dark