At the beginning of the holiday season, many of us start looking back over the past year, counting our blessings and sharing things for which we are thankful.
And then there was 2020.
Right now, when “it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month or even your year,” has been on endless repeat in our minds, it can be a challenge to come up with the good. But, we know that lots of super smart science-y people have proven with studies full of impressive statistics and charts that lives are changed for the better when a practice of gratitude is adopted. We feel that organizations can also be advanced through gratitude.
And so we give thanks.
We give thanks that in this trying year, we can, as The Rembrandts go on to say, “be there for you”. We are thankful that our area of expertise is one that can help others as they make the transition to working and living more remotely.
As technology geeks, we are always thankful for the toys, gadgets, and lines of code that bring us joy, but this year we are especially thankful that technology is at the level it is and that we can help our clients leverage the tools available to make the most of this new work from home setup.
We are thankful for our clients, who have had to readjust to a virtual work world without much warning and who have given us the honor and privilege of being the ones to help them make this adjustment. We have been continually impressed with the patience and yes, positivity, we have seen from you all as you’ve scrambled to change business as you know it.
We are thankful to the communications providers and others in the technology infrastructure of our world that have worked tirelessly to make sure systems can support this new virtual model.
We are thankful to our vendors and other retailers who have worked hard to get us the technology we need to support remote needs. At times it has been hard to source things like laptops because everyone suddenly needs one, but our vendors have been amazing and creative at finding solutions that help us continue to serve our clients.
And, we are even thankful for platforms such as GoToMeeting and Zoom that have allowed us to still see our team (even though it means we have to dump the clutter behind us to the floor every Monday morning). To have Zoom fatigue, in many ways, is a privilege; it means that we are still able to have personal connections, even if we can’t be in the same room as each other.
We are thankful for our families who have understood us putting in long hours as we worked this spring to get everyone remote and online. We are thankful to the Fluffys and Brunos in our lives, who have curled at our feet or stared disdainfully down at us from behind our monitors, bringing comfort in a challenging time.
We are thankful to those in our communities who have rallied together and have at times been awed by the way we’ve seen people adapt to a different way of life with grace and a generosity of spirit.
The silver lining of 2020
Do we miss “regular” life? Of course. But looking back, 2020, although certainly a challenge, hasn’t been all bad. In the midst of a pandemic, we saw people inside and outside our business rise to not only meet those challenges but to leave them in the dust.
We saw people work together to overcome the obstacles presented by suddenly shifting to a remote workforce. We saw creativity in setting up new home offices and places where kids could go to school online. And we saw our love, technology, suddenly used not just to create spreadsheets and track production, but as a tool to stay connected to our coworkers, friends, and families.
And so, we give thanks.
So, while at first blush it seems hard to be grateful, this year we find that we are actually more grateful than ever. We are grateful for the technology, yes, but even more so for the people who are in our lives and business.
Thank you to our clients, vendors, families, friends, and the community for giving us the privilege of working with you over the past year.
