Josh wasn't thrilled when he emerged from the shower and learned that I had just registered a new blog url for Bridges during the ten minutes it took him to soap up his body.

He spied the telltale post-it notes littering the computer table. "What is this? Awareness? Bridges? Addiction, infertility, body image? Melissa, what the hell?"

"It's a new project?" I cringed.

"I was in the shower for ten minutes."

"You are very beautiful and I love you," I told him which is my answer whenever he is right and I am wrong and I am apologetic but I am not going to change. Starting Bridges a few days before the first draft of the book was due, when I'm knee-deep in edits and dealing with a few crises that were boiling, was probably not my smartest move. But I'm not smart. I run head-first without thinking into things. I figure whatever won't work will fizzle out and whatever will work will still be standing a year or more later. I hope that Bridges is still standing a year later and I have full faith that it will be because the contributing editors and guest posts we already have lined up rock.

It seems fitting that the first true posts began running today. I actually didn't plan this--I wanted to have them begin running on August 1st but waited for Monday to give myself the weekend to get everything settled. Today is actually the one year anniversary of the Lost & Found. One year ago today, I posted a list here on Stirrup Queens and explained that it would be a space, a meeting ground, that everyone would know to go to so those lost could be found. It was truly just a space for someone who had stopped blogging to update everyone on what was happening in their world and for someone who missed a fellow blogger to post a note to them.

On August 13th, it moved to its current location and began running every week day, disseminating news and pointing people towards questions or needs for support scattered across the blogosphere. The first posts have six categories. The most current posts have nine. We've had 219 posts since we moved to the new location (in the early days, a single post was erased and rewritten so I don't have a copy of the first incarnation of LFCA).

I hope we're celebrating Bridge's anniversary this time next year. We have 18 contributing editors and we're adding new people daily. We have posts scheduled for weeks in advance and every single post is amazing. Stepping into Bridges is about sliding someone else's shoes on for the day and walking around in their thoughts.

Every Friday, we're inviting you to join into the discussion through a series of open threads called True View. Look for the first one at the end of this week.

Sort of a big week: one little project celebrates its first birthday, another is born with its first posts. Much cake and champagne for everyone.

Speaking of building bridges, if you missed it and want to see it, the video of our panel from BlogHer (thank you, Pamela Jeanne!)