More than a decade ago I met wellness instructor Patrick Reynolds.

Like me, he was an undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill. (Unlike me, he finished his undergrad in three years, instead of four). Patrick was a charming Creative Writing minor with a penchant for espresso and the Japanese language. He wrote stories and generally bumbled about.

We became fast friends, constantly finding ourselves in unlikely situations. Like in 1999, when the acorn—you read that right— dropped in Raleigh, North Carolina and for the first three minutes of 2000 we heard it was time to party like it’s 1999. (Depend on North Carolina to start the decade by living in the past).

The first meditation class I attended, Patrick taught. On campus, in a dorm. I laughed my way through it—at him. That ended in me getting excused from the class. But it also began a lifelong (fingers-crossed) friendship. In many ways, my path as a practitioner started as we drove through Wendy’s one night and he told me about the path of a Bodhisattva. (Again, I laughed. This time with Frosty in my mouth).

Patrick and I, upon graduation, moved to Japan. He had just served in the Peace Corps. I had just lived in England for a year. We kept in touch through letters. (Imagine a world before Facebook, MySpace and Twitter!) Two English degrees between us amounted to a whole lot of no good. So, it had seemed like a wise decision for us to move to Japan and teach English. Once in Japan, with a year of English teaching under our belts, we opened a yoga studio together, which just celebrated its four year anniversary.

While in Japan, we started a podcast on Zen, though we ended it recently after 135 episodes, three years running and 12 listeners. (And really, people loved it. From a review on iTunes: “Complete silence would be a vast improvement.”) We now have the studio, The Mindfulist and a whole lot of stories between us. We’re ready for what’s next.

Disclaimer: my crush on Patrick has nothing to do with sexual love. It always has been a mutual, abiding admiration. I love his ability to balance video game playing with yogic practice. He likes that I can be a digital strategist with a yoga practice. We’re a great team and I know we’ll be building together for years to come. He helps me live my best life.

Please take a moment to meet my best friend, Patrick Reynolds. Dare you not to fall in love with him too:

Check out Patrick’s “The Peak Condition Project” blog here

Click here to learn about Patrick’s studio: Yoga Garden