This is my last blog post on YourVoices. The Star Tribune is ending the community-focused blog that has included among others: writers, politicians, professors, chefs, contractors, moms, rappers and a cabbie.
It will transition to a feature called 10,000 Takes, first-person essays centered on the Minnesota living experience. Don't be surprised if you read me there someday in the future. As a relative newcomer to this state I have plenty to say about being the perennial fish out of water surrounded by 10K+ lakes.
You'll still find my gardening column in the Homes section on Sundays during the growing season. And don't forget my personal blog, The Garden Buzz.
Until then I'm signing off … with gratitude.
But first a few words about blogging. Whenever I'm asked advice on blogging I tell people it's like having an extra child. A hungry child that demands you create content, often out of thin air. At first you have so much to say but as time goes by and other life events and demands present themselves, the blog unlike your kids, often goes unfed. There's nothing worse than a stale, starving blog withering away in the dusty corners of the Internet.
It's not easy to keep that blog template filled with fresh ideas. But a walk around the block usually does wonders. You never know when the seed of a blog post will plant itself in your brain.
That said I've been pretty good about this one. Although it advertised me as a horticulture expert I've veered from the garden path many times. I've chronicled my encounters with wildlife, I've stepped up on my soap box, I've shared deeply personal details of my family and its ordinary but complicated story.
As an introvert I sometimes considered this blog my Emily Dickinson-ish "letter to the world that never wrote to me". But then it happened that you did. I've been touched by the many supportive and positive comments posted by you, my readers. And the few unpleasant ones? They only served to toughen me up, because blogging is not for the faint of heart.
