Wow! 1000th blog post. Makes me feel kinda old in the blogosphere. No worries – it’s been an amazing journey.

999 blogs and over four years ago, I felt the need to celebrate my female friendships and to acknowledge how special women are in our lives. And, I had no real idea on where it would lead but my overwhelming passion to inspire women lead me to a blog that lead to here. A long journey that started when two girlfriends were both experiencing cancer and I felt the need, the strong need, to be around my girlfriends. And, not just them, I wanted to be around other friends who would help me be the friend I needed to be to these girlfriends in the battle of their lives. I just had the need so I blogged about it.

I blogged about my girlfriends who taught me lessons on friendship and being an entrepreneur. I blogged about the women who inspire me – from famous women like Wilma Rudolph to girlfriends you should know like Jill MacKay and Katie Hacker. I gathered great guest blogs like this one and celebrated Valentine’s Day, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving and even The Superbowl. I blogged about movies, tv shows and women’s causes. But all of it has been centered around sharing information, insight and hopefully inspiration with my fellow female friends.

When I tweeted that I was working on my 1000th blog, my girlfriend Shannan recommended I post my favorites. Well, it’s hard to find 10 in 1000 but here’s a shot at some of the fun blogs, sad stories, meaningful posts and milestones in my amazing journey through the blogosphere of women bloggers and the challenge, and joy, of inspiring women:

1. Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. (At least I’m not singing from ‘The Sound of Music.’) The very first blog post was on January 20, 2006 where I stated: “My dream is to start a community of women who can connect, share, inspire, motivate and laugh together. I’m moving forward on this without knowing how it all will happen. I just know that is has to happen.” And it has, thanks to the support, encouragement and inspiration of so many girlfriends. (What is really sad is that one of my girlfriend who was dealing with cancer, left a note on this blog. She has recently lost her battle with cancer and it makes me miss her more.)

2. An early blog further explored how to be a friend to girlfriends dealing with cancer and hardship. I still don’t know the answer to this question but it helps to have women continue to impact us with their wisdom and compassion. And this one covered sadness and stress over the holidays.

3. I love meeting my friends’ friends. And, in this post, I love introducing you to some of mine, like jewelry designer JILL MACKAY – she’s a great girlfriend and can out-laugh anyone! I also love celebrating both my girlfriends and their success like this post featuring girlfriend VICKI.

4. We’ve had some wonderful events for women too (like the Best Friend’s Day we celebrated above with girlfriend portraits) and several celebrations centered around National Women’s Friendship Month. It’s always amazing to meet new friends who are strong, wonderful women!

5. Sometimes life isn’t so easy and you really do need a friend’s shoulder to cry on. Thankfully my friends were there for me during this sad time.

6. One way to show your friendship is with girlfriend gifts so we try to recommend thoughtful reminders to give to your friends and express your appreciation for their friendship. This one is an especially thoughtful gift that was given to me after the sad time mentioned above.

7. “Sure babe, let’s talk!” Sure wasn’t the response I thought  I’d receive when I contacted bestselling author KRIS RADISH about interviewing her for Girlfriendology. She was our first podcast interview and soon became a girlfriend. She’s returned to be our first Girlfriendology Video and is featured in this month’s book club. (And she writes amazing books about women that you want to know IRL, or maybe already know.)

8. Speaking of that book club, I wasn’t sure when I started it last month how it would work. I’ve participated in Twitter parties but didn’t want to limit it to only women on Twitter so we all got online at the same time and commented in a certain area. It actually was very fun to refresh and see all the new comments. Join us this month for book club! The book, The Elegant Gathering of the White Snows (by Kris Radish) is fabulous and I promise the conversation will be fun.

9. I was also honored to have a TV legend (seriously!) on our podcast. CAROL DUVALL was on TV for 57 years and had a variety of lifestyle and crafting roles including her great ‘Carol Duvall Show’ (that I was thrilled to be on a dozen times). I was so appreciative of her taking time to talk with me. I just love hearing her voice.

10. This was a recent blog that made me pause before publishing. I am committed to this Girlfriendology community welcoming all women. (Sorry guys – I delete you from the Girlfriendology community, Twitter and Facebook!) I want you to feel comfortable here regardless of any demographic restrictions – you can be married, divorced or single; with kids or not; a Republican, Democrat or whatever; and think what you want about religion, rights and if you’re a ‘crunchy’ or not! I just want you to feel at home here – like you do at your BFFs home. So this blog post was a little trying for me. I knew I wanted to say it, but I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable with my personal opinions. So it makes the list for making me pause, but knowing it was something I felt strongly about.

So, there’s the base of all things Girlfriendology.

What are your thoughts? What would you like to see more of?

What would you recommend for me and the continued growth of this amazing community of women. And, am I living up to my initial goal? How can I, and we, create a community of women who connect, share, inspire, motivate and laugh together? JOIN US!

Tags: 1000th blog, anniversary, best posts, blogosphere, Girlfriendology, lessons

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Be a Better FRIEND, Business and Career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.