As usual I have been worried about an upcoming Community Band concert. I don’t know why I’m like that, why I worry so much. But soon enough Friday afternoon arrived and I found myself dressed in black, hauling rolling buckets filled with extra music (just in case) and arriving at out venue early to help setup.

There’s always a lot to set up for a concert, especially when we have a cake and cookie reception after. This year we also had displays about our country’s history, put together by both high school students and members of . And of course there’s the 50+ chairs and stands that needed to be organized up on the stage.

Soon it was time to warm up, to play a few measures of this piece and that together. To work out any problematic parts, to practice, just one more time, the tempo change at measure 68. To settle into our chairs, adjust the height of the stand, push our reading glasses up our noses.

To focus.

And, of course, to look out at the accumulating audience, checking to see if our own people have arrived. This year I had eight friends, neighbors and family attend our concert. That’s a record for me. For years it’s just been my poor husband attending, on his own, innumerable concerts over the years in support me.

This year my sister and her friend drove up from Alabama just for the concert (and of course to visit with us), Penny’s breeder came, one of my night photography friends arrived from across the county, and three people from my neighborhood came too.

Does having people you know in the audience up the anxiety level? Not this time. I knew they’d like this kind of concert, patriotic music, marches that they’d heard before, and a salute to members of our armed forces.

You could hardly not like it. We even gave everybody flags to wave during the obligatory Stars and Stripes finale.

In the end the music was good, the cake was good, Uncle Sam arrived to conduct, and everybody had a good time. Which is, after all, the goal of any celebration.

Check around your town. I bet this summer there’s going to be a concert somewhere near you that celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Make a point of going. I think you’ll feel better about our country if you enjoy music in the company of other folks. There’s a kind of hope in celebratory music.

Don’t miss your opportunity to feel the love.