In just a few weeks, it will mark the day that our tour stopped in it's tracks. Each year our tour has gained strength with new and bigger opportunities growing . Our audience and fan base was growing stronger and more engaged in our journey. Then, "poof!" just like that.....a pandemic hits the world. Like a domino effect, on March 15, 2020, our live/in person shows began to cancel across the country - one after another! We were literally watching all of our promotional work, our income - our future - begin to fall away. At first, like many others, we assumed the shut-down would only last a few weeks and then we would be able to resume our tour and pick up where we left off. So, we began to think, "how can we keep our audience engaged AND support Tombstone (a town struggling with their tourist income coming to a stand still) where we are now staying?"
An idea immediately sparked......we then put our plan into motion! As we walked around this town, we began talking to the local businesses and actors, asking questions and learning about what they would like to see happen in the coming days. Soon, we enrolled local actors and a local venue into creating a weekly show highlighting what this town had to offer! It was all very exciting!!! Our hopes, we would generate a distraction from what was going on, provide entertainment while people are bored, interest in this town and excitement, that when everything did open up in a few weeks new tourists would want to come experience this place in person for themselves! With all of this, we would also keep our current fan base entertained...win-win!! Voila!...Virtual Tomstone Weekly Show was born! Our first show meeting was a complete bust...everyone that said they would be there, didn't show. Again we shifted. We ended up shifting many times over the course of this last year. With each step, we were learning - what is working, what isn't working, what do we want, and what does our audience want?
Over the course of this past year, the most important lesson we have learned is that our power remains in our response to the circumstances we are faced with. We chose not to panic when our live shows cancelled, we chose not to panic when we didn't know what our next step would be, we chose not to panic when we had no idea how we were going to survive. Instead, we allowed ourselves to trust, be patient, enjoy the moment and we allowed the universe to send us what we needed in each moment. Sometimes, the universe sent us inspired ideas, opportunities we never thought of before, time to rest, time to create, finances, a safe place to stay, people and food. We have been very blessed this year and we learned so much!! Our power is in our choice and we can only control how we respond to the circumstances that we are faced with. So, why not respond with JOY and LOVE, or PATIENCE, and then sit back and watch the universe respond to your choice, with excitement and surprise!!!