Some great food for thought this morning. It turned into a long list with various categories, as my thoughts tend to do.

Bloggers:
As I previously mentioned, Glenn from To Simplify for van living, minimalism, and just general non-mainstreamness.

David from Raptitude (which I highly recommend and only just discovered), who joined the FB group I recently created to try to meet more like-minded people in real life so hopefully I'll meet him in person soon.

Other Forum Members:
A past member of this forum, who I don't think has been around for a few years now, but made a big impression on me, Loose Chickens, who is an early-retired, RV living, nudist. She was a great example to me of the kind of life I wanted back when I was nowhere close to having that life.

Some of the longtime forum members who have been kicking around here with me on/off for a decade, Spartana, lhamo, Iris Lily, Stella are the ones that come to mind (not purposely excluding anyone else). All of these ladies have quite different lifestyles, but why I admire them all is the way they live and share so openly and authentically. They never apologize for being who they are.

From the forums as well, Fawn, who wrote this amazing book about her work as a hospice nurse. I'm in awe of the way she conducts her life and work.

My good friend I met here, fidgiegirl, who is my partner in Scanner/gluten-free/business-creation crime, among the other things we have in common. I'm looking forward to finally meeting her in real life when I head to the Twin Cities soon.

From the non-internet world:
My parents, who are definitely not the best parents, and our relationship is complicated, but nevertheless got me started out in life not expecting to be part of the mainstream with their hippie, multicultural, non-conformist, sort-of frugal, ways.

A couple who were friends of my parents when I was a child who were DINKs and had just the most peaceful home and wonderful life, unlike the chaos at my house, who showed me a type of life more suited to my personality, and that child-free was an actual choice one could make.

A lady I met briefly who lived in a nice trailer on a large piece of land with rescue animals. Her parents had their own trailer on the same property. Her house was so warm and cozy and her life seemed so perfect and peaceful.

My friend, TL, who is the calmest, most peacefully happy person I have ever met. She takes everything in stride and is the only person I know who I don't think I've ever heard complain or gossip. I want to be more like her. She just has this inner grace that is hard to find.

My friend TF who is a hippie mother, who I can freely share my hippie ways with, without feeling weird about it. She's had a lot of challenges in her life and just keeps on going.

My good friend and kindred spirit, N, who has the soul of a Simple Liver, though his life is decidedly unsimple at the moment. He's the most compassionate, intelligent, and thoughtful person I've met. Meeting him started a cascade affect that resulted in the wonderful life I have now. He helped me realize that there are other people like me out there and I'm eternally grateful to have him as a friend.

Those are the people that come to mind first. It's an interesting exercise to reflect on the qualities in others that you want to emulate. Clearly I like peaceful people.