There are plenty of reasons to look forward to the holidays this year. So much political nastiness has been spewing that I, for one, am ready for goodness and kindness and graciousness to return. Perhaps it was no accident that our elections are set to occur just a few steps before the time when our hearts and our minds are called Homeward in gratitude and reverence. We need this repeated reminder, Thanksgiving and Christmas rolling around the same time each year, the same way we need other sacraments in our lives!
Our Christmas concert 2016 centers around things I know. There is surely MUCH that I do not know! But there are a few precious things I do: family, friendship, community, faith, laughter, memories…these all bring me back to the center. And there in the center I find the people I cherish.
Among them are friends who have come into my life because of music. Mark Robinette and I performed a private gig tonight, and afterwards a woman came up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and whispered, “Why do I feel like I know you so well, and you know me?” I whispered back; “If you know my songs (and she did, she had sung along to them all night), then the truth is, you do know me. And if the lyrics speak of your own inner experience, then I suppose I know you as well.”
That is why I love creating these Christmas concerts every year. It’s like singing Kumbaya around a massive community campfire with hundreds of my closest friends!
Thank you for your friendship; for your support and encouragement. And thank you also for being generous in the charitable causes my musician friends, Farmington City, and I work to champion in these performances.
Mark your calendars. Call someone you love and drag them along with you to the charmingly intimate Farmington Arts Center on Dec. 2,3,5 or 6. Tickets are selling swiftly. Since we have sold out the last few years, we added another night this year. Tuesday was originally planned to be a corporate sponsored night, but I was not on the ball enough to find a corporate sponsor, so it’s available to everyone like any other night.
This year the beneficiaries of our concert profits are organizations that provide education for orphans in Africa and build houses for indigent families in Mexico. Both these causes are near and dear to us, and we appreciate your attendance and how that helps these causes.
Really though, what it all boils down to is one person sitting in the audience (you) and one soft hearted old gal on the stage (me) sharing something that happens when music and hearts embrace. I’ll do everything I can to do my part in the interchange. Here’s hoping you will want to join me.
God bless us, everyone!
