? Look up and see the magic in the workplace...

Yesterday we made magic for our Fastly community. A 24-hour zoom link to cater to all time zones and interests around the globe. The theme was THE 4 ELEMENTS — ??, ??, ?? and ??. If this year wasn’t a crystal clear sign from Mother Nature to live in harmony with our environment and one another, I’m not sure what is.

We dove with nurse ?? in the Maldives, followed a Costa Rican coffee bean from ?? to ??, fought ?? with traditional Turkish dancers and Detroit ?????, skydived from a ?? over San Diego, and of course ?? with an Earth Wind & Fire cover band broadcast live from Seattle among many other experiences curated just for our Fastly family.

I haven’t laughed or smiled so much all year long, and the outpouring of excitement and joy and wonder and calm and perspective we witnessed from our employees around the world created a ? that I almost let myself believe was lost forever this year. But it’s not. Not even a little bit. In fact, that spark is so ready to be ignited within each of us that the smallest gesture of kindness, thoughtfulness or generosity becomes a flame whose tendrils warm much farther than the eye can see.

I am so grateful to live my life in service of sharing joy and connection, and even moreso to have been at Fastly this remarkably unjoyful and disconnected year. We’ve come through it with some scars and a lot of exhaustion, but also with grace, flexibility and most importantly teamwork and authentic support and prioritization for our humans.

Yesterday was also the natural culmination of countless efforts to reach every single Fastlyan throughout the year. Every hour for the past 9 months has been a moving goalpost, and our by-the-numbers analysis showed the importance of getting creative, throwing things out there, learning from / not dwelling on / reframing failures, faking it until we're making it, and just how incredible a little strategy tossed with a brush of insanity in a bowl of collaboration can make a surprise dish that nurtures all who show up to the banquet. So I might have gotten a little carried away in my metaphors, but the underlying lesson to me has been one of the power of persistence, the efficacy of empathy, and the festive spirit of fun.

As we wrap up one of the most challenging years in recent memory and modern history and prepare ourselves for a new beginning where much of the world looks similar to the days and months before it, I'm here to say LOOK UP. Look up from the news and personal pressures that are dragging your gaze down. Look up to those words of wisdom and hope that keep you breathing and able to tough it out another day. Look up new ways to engage your communities and continue learning from and reframing your failures. You just might find the sky a better view than the ground, and that internal compass radiates out to raise the center of gravity around you.

Here's to better times assuredly ahead, and the power of the magic within each one of us.

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