Happy First Birthday Women on the Verge!

Women on the Verge (WOTV) is one year old. I say that one line and I am somewhat blown away. Not by how fast time flies, or that it seems like it was only yesterday. But, how, like when you have a baby – it seems like she was always here. What was my life before it became full of female energy? Supportive, loving, laughing, crying, real female energy. The kind you can tell your deepest secrets to and still get a hug. The kind that shares even when they are tired. The kind that cheers with you during your triumphs and helps you keep walking when you fall. Gosh... I can barely remember.

WOTV has confirmed my own belief that women in their true nature are nurturing and supportive. Since the beginning of time, we have nurtured our children's growth, our husband's career, our elderly parents. What happens when we nurture each other? What happens when we direct that kind and supportive energy to other women? Women on the Verge happens.

Our community spans every continent, except for Antarctica, and even some island nations. Our platform is the Internet, our foundation is the spirit and voices of women. We are united by a kindness and unconditional love for our sisters. We are mold-breakers and in a way, being on the verge has come to mean, doing it in your own way.

Talking over the fence has a new face, when it is on the Internet, but that has become our village. We talk to each other almost every day, via our Twitter and Facebook, many of these are faces we have never seen in real life, yet we give a damn. In fact, we care a lot. A new pregnancy, a new job, a new book, a new pair of pants – suddenly has an audience that cares. Talking and nurturing women is empowering. Member, Pam Ferris-Olson said it best, “Women empowering women is what it's about.”

Our blogs have been a source of some of the most profound and deepest places on our site. Member, Barbara Reed calls us, “Voices coming together to support and elevate one another.” Elevating was easy, since our members share so magically – so real. There were many times in our blogs, that giving a virtual hug, sharing a tear, or a joy made it our place to get it out. Some of the blog posts changed my life, some touched some core spots in me. Always, whenever I used them (as now), I was grateful for the outlet. The blogs are a very special place in our community. I can't wait to see where they continue to take us.

Initially, the community was so very small, and cute. A few brave souls ventured onto the site and posted their information. Ann Pietrangelo, our first member, was brave enough to test the site for me – and even share many of her blog posts with us. Our first male, Michael Sherman came on board, which opened the door for a few other males to make their way into our community. Why even Gatto Tull, our suave Brazilian cat, decided he was definitely on the verge and decided to join us. We were growing (and still are).

Today, our member list has since become a sort of Who's Who, for those living off the beaten path. We are not a group who is afraid to speak our minds – and still love each other through it all. It's become almost like family – and like my mother always used to say at dinner time, “There's always room for more.” We embrace the newcomers, we appreciate the veterans.

We continue to spread ourselves around the Internet – we have our website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Radio Show. We are always looking for and discovering ways to get our members' messages out. This is a phenomenal group – please check out these women!! I do virtual shout outs every day... sometimes they even reach an audience. Our website gets over 100000 hits per average month. Our Twitter followers exceed 6600 and our radio show has had over 11000 listens in less than 4 months.

In the upcoming year we hope to continue spreading the word, and you may wonder, what do we have up our sleeves? Well, we are considering a few opportunities such as: going on tour (which would bring our Vlog and show to new heights; offering a WOTV marketplace – where you can have an additional location to sell your goods; or perhaps having a monthly TweetChat – where one evening a month we can pour ourselves a glass of wine and discuss a topic amongst ourselves. Of course, since we are a community, I would appreciate your feedback on any of these ideas.

On our first birthday, we are filling our hearts and minds with the words of wisdom from our members. All day long on Twitter, you will be able to see what a beautiful community we are. These quotes will be continuous – throughout the day and night. They will weave the airways with our choir of sisterhood and beauty. These fabulous quotes will also randomly cycle on our website. From now on, the words of our members will be our quotes at the bottom of every single page on the site. Please check them out – they are fabulous.

I will celebrate this first birthday, by remembering a quote from one of my blog posts on the WOTV site: “Every day we make the choice to seize the opportunity to be supporting, accepting and nurturing to our "sisters" and feel empowered by their presence.”

Happy Birthday and Thank you all for being on the Verge!
Please visit us at WomenontheVerge.net