March madness at Red Canyon Art (1 year COVID)

Can I actually close my store and survive? I think I should
close…. What will happen? When will it end? When will I open
again? Will people come back? Will they feel safe? Will I feel
safe?

So many questions came rolling down all at once as the
environment changed daily. Slowly it became a trickle of people
into the shop, and then the decision to Close the Store. Ha! I
wouldn’t even close to take vacation, now I was closing, for an
unforetold amount of time–so many unknowns. Strange feelings
to process. All going against my instincts.

As the shock of actually closing & wow, Not Working, came to
pass, I decided I would relax into the first two weeks of this
pandemic closure as the vacation a small business owner wants.
Only I can’t quite manage to pull off feeling great about it
because it’s hard to be away from what I’ve nurtured, grown and
created – to share. Ahhh, could I find some lightness in making
this an opportunity to vacation – vacate?? Well, kind of. I couldn’t
go anywhere, or visit my family, or have friends in…. what to do
during this strange period of shutdown?

An opportunity to step back, breathe, and look at what is. Family
rose to the top and for the first time, six siblings got online for
Sunday Zoom calls to say hello and catch up. A reconnection of
family members. A reconnection with my adult children, on zoom.
Everyone was ok. We kind of held each other’s hand (virtually).
And as the situation continued, from my vantage point, I saw that
with mitigation protocols in place, a business could stay open.
And so about 8 weeks after closing, with Boulder County
blessings & protocol in place, I opened again for Mothers Day
weekend, and was rewarded with a slew of Lyons Locals coming
in for gifts! So heartwarming!

And Boom, back to being open! 6 days a week! 10-5 daily,
closed on Tuesdays!

An interesting summer, albeit quite different from previous
summers, as the store being open seemed to be a haven for those who
wanted to get out. I felt lucky, (using protocol) to be able to
interact and hear from customers about what was happening in
their world, rather than being stuck working in a home office
seeing folks on Zoom. I had human interaction in a way that was
being denied to most, and it was good, really good to have some
‘normalcy’ in my world. Being a small town with a small customer
base is a double edge sword–I was able to open and not have
too many people in the store at one time (safety!), and I wanted as
many customers as possible to come in ‘cause I needed the
business!

It turned out okay, and having lived here thru the floods, I once
again saw the spirit of Lyons come thru, with people supporting
each other in any and all ways. And, like the floods, I knew with
even more certainty the reasons I call Lyons home.