The Ice Cream Lady Cometh

In the last few weeks several people have reached out to tell me that listening to Hark is causing them to pay more attention to the sounds of the more-than-human voices around us. To me, this feedback is true nourishment. Downloads, donations, press and prizes and all that sort of thing: necessary, valuable, appreciated. But knowing the work is actually impacting how people relate to the living world? That’s the end-all, be-all for me. That’s why I make the show; to help myself and hopefully other people open up to and feel and think about and delight in and grieve over and just connect to our beautiful, powerful home planet. If you’re one of those people who has reached out recently—or ever—thank you. I have zero expectations of hearing from listeners, but when I do, it really means something.One of things that was important to me in making Hark was to avoid a “nature good / people bad” dichotomy. First of all, because people are nature and nature is people. But also because with all the ugly, aggressive, thoughtless noise our species is making right now, it’s easy to fall into an overly simplistic, finger-waggy narrative, and forget all the ways that humans add lovely and interesting sounds to this world too.One of those sounds rolled past my door a few minutes ago, so I decided to share it here. This is 30-ish seconds of me pausing to listen to a fellow human, unknown to me but appreciated from afar. Well, not too far, really. She passes through my neighborhood, and I look up from doing dishes in my kitchen, writing on my front stoop, or pulling weeds in my yard. And I smile.Thanks, Ice Cream Lady. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letterstoearthlings.substack.com/subscribe