Aloha, Holoholo Wale.

That title makes no sense unless you happen to know that the name of my Hawaii blog was Holoholo Wale. I’m really sad to tell you that my World Hum Hawaii blog has been shut down.

It was a business decision, a lay off, essentially. World Hum had to cut loose the half dozen or so bloggers they’d added to the site early this year. There’s a post here from one of the editors and one more aloha from me here.

I have nothing but respect for World Hum crew. It’s been great to work with them — none of my writing gigs have come with the rigorous editorial oversight that World Hum provided and I am quite certain that I am a better writer for the opportunity. They didn’t publish everything I wrote — some of it was sent back for revisions, my second to last post was rejected even after I’d made changes to it. Every time a post went live without input, it was a small triumph. I mention this not to suggest that it’s been a pain in the ass, but rather to illustrate that there’s a reason the site is quality. I couldn’t just hammer stuff out and throw it over the wall, no lazy writing for me. I have been schooled, but good. I’m thankful for that.

Ironically, I had been courted by two other networks to be their Hawaii bloggers. I chose to go with World Hum because they appealed to the literary in me, the part that loves story telling and cultural exploration. I find myself wondering if I should revive the conversations with the other networks — if they’d have me, I suppose I could carve out a place for the type of writing I’ve been doing about Hawaii, though I do think I’d need to make a concession to the practical advice so popular in a lot of travel sites. I find myself wondering if I should launch my own Hawaii blog or just do more Hawaii blogging right here,  though it takes a lot of nerve, a mainlander who’s never even been a Hawaii resident, who isn’t Hawaiian, to wade in to those waters. And of course I find myself wondering what I’ve got in the Hawaii compartment of my brain that can be teased out into feature stories for World Hum. Deciscions, decisions.

Blogging is a tough gig. The pay is low, it’s got to fit in with your day job, and in travel, you need to find the stories that aren’t being covered elsewhere or you’re just another boring hack. But I love it, I love how fast it is, I love how far it reaches, I love the connections it helps you make. Holoholo Wale — which means wandering around aimlessly, in case you’ve forgotten — let me do just that. I wandered Hawaii, both in person and virtually, seeing what I could see, looking into the shadows of the water lilies, down into sandy coves, out across the ocean. I woke up hearing the surf. For a brief while, I was actually paid to wander Hawaii and write about it. Though that gig is over and I’m very sad about that, I’m still sort of amazed that I got to do it at all.

Now, who wants a stray Hawaii blogger?