Sleeping Snakes and the Lake with Katie Murray

Second-time guest Katie Murray joins The Burn to share her story of being diagnosed at 41 with Stage II invasive lobular breast cancer. A writer, teacher, and mother of four, Katie reads her essay “Sleeping Snakes and the Lake” from the 2025 Living Well issue of Wildfire Journal.

Her piece offers a meditation on healing—not the kind defined by treatment end dates or clean scans, but the slow, quiet kind that arrives unexpectedly years later, in moments as small and tender as noticing baby eyelashes. Liz and Katie discuss healing versus recovery, the pressure of timelines, hope, and the shame Katie carried about her cancer diagnosis.