I recently had the wonderful privilege of hearing my own work read aloud by someone else, beautifully and with care, and I’m just delighted by the experience.
There were different emphases than I might have chosen; the piece suddenly had this fresh life I hadn’t known about yet. And I remembered what it felt like to experience those thoughts in the first place, and shape them in words. It was a gift.
There’s audio, so you can listen too, if you like.
Dave at Three Banana Thursday shares three thought-worthy pieces (“bananas,” the perfect food for thought) from around the web, every Thursday via newsletter and the website. Trust me, they’re better than the profit-driven content Google’s algorithms think you ought to spend your brain cells on. (Example: check out these musings on sustainable dye made from snail urine, and the tech that powered ancient Athenian democracy.)
Usually they’re in text form, but I got to be part of the first “audio-banana” — a wonderful short meditation on ritual and its intersections with modern life, that begins with some words from my essay A Field Offering. It ends with Dave saying something that may just be changing my mind about Halloween, my least-favorite holiday.
Check it out, and if you enjoy your daily internet with a side of thoughtful conversation, maybe consider signing up for Dave’s newsletter. So far I’m enjoying it immensely.
Tara K. Shepersky 
I also loved hearing your work read aloud—it was lovely to hear Dave’s interpretation. I read very quickly, and although I picked up the message you wrote when I read on my own, listening helped me slow down and appreciate the individual words.
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That’s such a good point! I also tend to read quickly and often skim out of habit, even when I’m sitting with words I truly want to read. Listening to them is immersive, though. Word choice and rhythm really start to glimmer.
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