This post finds me thankful for my wife, Sara. A few years ago she found herself successful, but unhappy working for a large corporation here in St. Louis. In what was a test of our relationship and eventually our marriage, we decided that the time was right for her to leave her job and pursue a new career. Sara graduated right before we were married, and the events leading up to our wedding probably overshadowed her accomplishment of graduating with a degree in Interior Design more than either of us would admit.
One year later Sara has continued her string of accomplishments, completing her LEED certification in environmental design. If you don't know what LEED is, you will soon. The ideas driving green building have a foundation in LEED, and in the near future those ideas will become everyday practice. I'm proud that Sara will be at the forefront of a new way of designing and building structures, with an appreciation for the relationship between people, the buildings we live and work in, the Earth and it's limited resources.
To celebrate Sara's certification, I planned a cookout at our house that in hindsight had an enormous carbon foot print due to the main course - a seafood boil of snow crab from Alaska, new potatoes and fresh corn on the cob. Trying to stick with a tradition that I have only read about, I covered a part of our picnic area with brown paper bags, then poured the crab and vegetables onto the table where we all gathered around to a family style seafood feast.
It was a rare moment of decadence with our hands covered in Old Bay and garlic infused butter, but it brought together good friends and Sara's favorite food to celebrate the hard work that she has completed. I guess in the end that made it even more of a moment to savor than the crabs themselves.
Here is to large and small victories, and for hoping that we take the time to celebrate them with our friends and family.
