Hello from our home base in the summery Pacific Northwest — and also from our globetrotting summer house concert tour — at the same time!
Whoa. It is a most unusual tour for a most extraordinary time; but I have to tell you … it’s wonderful.
Almost every night for the last two weeks, Jamie and I have descended the stairs to our basement to perform a house concert. We log in to the private Zoom meeting we’ve created, our host calls in from wherever they live, and then their guests — who call in from as close as the house next door to as far away as across the continent — join in as well. And for the following 2 hours or so, we do something together that nearly everyone there has never done before — we share a house concert, together, but each of us separately from our own homes!
Strange times, indeed.
And you know? We pivot and adapt as best we can when we have to! That’s what humans do. But you know what else? We have been completely surprised by and thoroughly grateful for how much we LOVE doing virtual house concerts.
We didn’t know, when we started planning for this new kind of touring adventure, how it would work out. It was completely uncertain. Totally unknown. But it’s what we could do in this time, and so we walked forward toward it with open hands and hopeful hearts.
We thought that maybe the virtual concerts would end up being a pale substitute for the in-person summer house concerts that we love so much.
As it turns out: they’re not. That doesn’t mean that they are just like the in-person concerts — they’re not that either! Nothing is a substitute for sharing physical space with others; and you just can’t replace real hugs.
But … what we’ve learned in these first two weeks of virtual concerts is that they are their own special, wonderful, improbable, and intimate thing — and we LOVE THEM.
What we’ve experienced — every night — is a truly meaningful, deeply connective sharing of love, energy, stories, hopes, struggles, dreams, and — of course — music. It feels downright miraculous — that when humans need and want to connect, that we can make that happen, even when we’re separated by sometimes thousands of miles. We find a way.
And yes: it’s different than what we’re used to. But this format, and this time, seem to offer their own array of peculiarities that — when walked toward with open hearts, instead of shied awayfrom due to fear of the uncertain — are bringing into our lives beautiful riches of connection and togetherness that our hearts desperately need — perhaps even in ways we didn’t have access to before now.
… And isn’t there a deeper lesson in that? There are treasures to be found around the bends of uncertainty.
It’s always a vulnerable feeling
to set out toward unknown destinations.
But often … that’s where the good stuff is.
Thank you so much to all of you who have hosted a virtual concert, or have been part of this new adventure with us so far. Because of you, our hearts are full.
It’s almost time to get myself ready to walk downstairs for tonight’s show, so I’ll say so long for now. I can’t wait to see what tonight’s adventure has in store.
Love and destinations unknown — shannon