ColumnI ♥ you.

As I write these words, I’m sitting in a cafe in Pacific Palisades, Calif., a place that in a way is my forever home. My heart is full to breaking with gratitude for the women in my life. And I have to say that here, in the presence of our readers, because while I believe you must know if you’re here in the first place, I want to make certain you do: the women behind the words at EcoSalon are extraordinary. They’re the women you want to know, and should. Some days I can’t believe my luck that I do.

They are a glowing collage of oddball refinement, complexity and consciousness, beauty and such beautiful scars. Color, fire, humor, creativity, verve, style, yes; yet something else distinct runs throughout. That thing is love.

Recently, while in Los Angeles for the EMAs with two of our team, Johanna Bjork and Rowena Ritchie, we were able to meet up with another of our editors based in Los Angeles, Katherine Butler, along with beloved former senior editor Kim Derby. After a chatter-filled brunch, we stopped by Kim’s house to meet her puppy, Blue. Kim and Rowena discussed Byron Katie, marriage, love, and other topics as I sat listening. Back in the car, I told Rowena how blessed I feel to have such wise women in my life, not only as colleagues but as friends. “It’s quite a group you’ve got here, Sara,” she remarked. I practically ran away from her when she dropped me at the cafe moments later so I could burst into tears of happiness in solitude. Sometimes, the good in women is almost too much.

To the one who ordered me that book because I was too busy to get around to ordering it myself; to the one who saved me thousands in therapy in a single Zinfandel-fueled night; to the one I’m only beginning to know, lucky me, who is always up for an adventure, road trip detours included; to the one who got me through more than two years (you know who you are); to the beautiful soul who grows with me year after year; to the brave one who gave it all up to try something new; you amaze me.

When EcoSalon began, I didn’t yet have an idea of just what it would become. I was a driven, imaginative kid with a sponge where a brain usually is. What do I want to do with my life? Ha! It’s nice if you know, but for me? Not my M.O. Instead, I just go do the thing. So I just about wanted to marry Mike Rowe when I read his piece about passion and “following it” as an artist. He says to stop worrying about what “it” is and just show up. Just bring the passion; don’t wait to find the thing, bring your passion to the thing and it becomes your thing. It almost doesn’t matter what it is we’re doing – just that we do it. EcoSalon is a work in progress because we are each a work in progress – editors, readers, writers. We should never forget we are each changing every moment.

At dinner once with one of our investors, we were talking about the future of EcoSalon and what we might be capable of. “The answer’s in you,” he said, matter-of-fact.

But with all due respect, he was wrong.

The answer is in us.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.