Greener Grass.

I am fortunate enough to be friends with an amazing family. The husband I've known since I was seventeen; we worked in a record store together. The wife, I have gotten to know over this last year. A reconnection over facebook. People claim that facebook reconnections are bad for the world, but this is proof that they cannot possibly be. They have the most beautiful children. The most wonderful home. The best dogs. They are really incredible. The thing that makes them this way, however, is not the seeming living out of an American Dream. Instead, it's the fact that though they could be settled and contented and do nothing more, they both follow their passions.

He is a musician, and a really talented one at that. Guitarist with a fantastically beautiful voice. The kind of voice that breaks your heart when you hear it sing the desperately mournful songs his band plays. He shrugs it off, saying he prefers the girl's voice in the band. He has a business, but the one he really longs to be putting his time and effort into is one of recording and producing music. One night, I watched him while he worked on a song. It was the rare vision of getting to see someone do what they really, truly love. Intimate, in a strange way, almost like watching someone make love to their soulmate. There was just such a sense of beauty and calm, but one completely surrounded by and exhilarated energy. It made me so happy to see that he has a calling that he worked to attain, and a passion that can be fulfilled.

She is a woman that can do no wrong, so far as I can see. Undoubtedly, this statement would only make her blush, and make her point out several things that she feels she doesn't live up to standards with. She's filled with modesty. Were I her, I think I would introduce myself to all the world as the most perfect female. Instead, she simply sees herself as someone that does what anyone would. She cares for her children, she loves her husband, she makes fabulous dinners, she decorates her home for every occasion with whimsical yet elegant choices, she is stunningly beautiful, a talented dancer, a discerning person that can still somehow put anyone at ease. She has immense education, and an extreme talent for educating others. For most, this would be the life that was led. Teaching, Family, and Friends would be it. But she too has greater ambition. She's beginning her own business. It's an online venture that hasn't even been officially launched yet, and she already has 200 followers. (I can't get more than four people to regularly read this stupid blog.) She is tireless and dedicated. Instead of coming up with an idea and saying, "wouldn't it be nice to someday...," she has taken hold of her inspirations and followed through. Already, she's landed major interviews with varied individuals for the business, and she's finding ways to make it a success. In the midst of taking on the world, she somehow found the time to send me a card to make me feel better. I don't know what magical land she hails from, but I have my doubts that its of this world.

I love these people. They are my heroes. It's so rare that you come across someone that's actually followed their bliss. It's so rare that you come across a couple that is real, and lovely, and happy, and a genuine joy to be around. They could be living in squalor and not doing anything with their time and I'd still think that they're fantastic; they're just "those people." But to see them really striving to fulfill their lives, to provide themselves with what makes them happy -- it's just a vision to behold and admire. They fill me with a sense of awe. I'm older than both of them, but when I grow up, these are the people I want to be.

(Thank you both for who you are, and for looking after the sad little Paddington Bear found via facebook after all these years. Thanks for seeing something in me that I often fail to see in myself. For not judging. For just loving me back. It means more to me than you know.)