Charlotte Merchandise Mart’s 38th annual Southern Christmas Show time! Judah L. Jones invited me to perform with the debut of her ensemble Circle of Peace on the stage 45 minutes Saturday 6 p.m., and Sunday 4 p.m. We—Judah, voice and guitar; her husband Bill, hammered dulcimer; Barbara, violin; and me, flute—received show tickets for our families as compensation: I am happy to host family members living in the Charlotte area. Our tickets are good for the entire (pre-Christmas, yes, pre-Thanksgiving, even pre-Advent) huge festive venue “12 Days of Christmas”, closing an hour after we finish our last performance. [Think…“saving the best for last”?]
Organizers expect about 160,000 people to attend what they call the biggest Christmas show of its kind in the country, featuring three adjoining halls packed with over 500 merchants and crafts people (including Charlotte’s Sister Cities International Artisan Pavilion), special interest traditions such as miniature houses, model trains, and Olde Towne’s Sparkling Shops (up-dated old world market), mouthwatering goodies (gingerbread cookies and more), competitions (“best of show” for wreaths, etc.), and entertainment (like us), vying for attention and/or purchase (not like us). Judah arranged our musical presentation of medieval and modern melodies with verses (English, Latin, and translations) from America, England, France, and Germany, opening with the Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel and the Taizé song Wait For the Lord, savoring the meaning of Christmas with carols like Angels We Have Heard On High and What Child Is This, and ending with the second of two lovely pieces she composed in our program, Centering Prayer.
Grounded in the roots and branches of the word holiday (“holy day”), Christmas—celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ—offers a fast-revolving world the everlasting peace, harmony, and joy found pierced in His hands of love. Joe and I were gone from home 10 hours Sunday—to church, a fast lunch, then the Southern Christmas Show: heard the Charlotte Flute Choir, saw booths we didn’t see the day before, performed 4:00-5:00, shopped to the end, then drove to the 7:00 start of Providence United Methodist Church’s new chamber music series season.
The next day I saw why I felt intensifying pain (Showing
Ruth's Backbone, and
Latest MRI's of Ruth's Back).
My neurosurgeon, on the disk which had ruptured 9½ months ago:
"worst case
with any hope of recovery."
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