Kathryn Nicolai

Our story tonight is called Concert in the Park, and it's a story about a warm evening spent enjoying live music.

It's also about tiger lilies and elephant ears, stone benches and sneakers, and the memories that melodies can bring to the surface.

So settle in and pull your blanket up over your shoulder.

I'll be here watching over as you drift off.

You aren't alone.

You are guarded.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Let it out your mouth.

Nice.

One more.

Breathe in.

And out.

Good.

A concert in the park.

It was a sunny day in the middle of the week, near the start of the summer.

I'd gotten home from work and puttered around in the yard for a while, then cut a vase's worth of tiger lilies.

and set them on the table by the front door, pulling out one extra bloom and setting it into a bud vase to sit on my bedside table.

I'd had a sweetheart years ago who always did this for me, a vase of flowers on the table,

and one blossom by the bed.

And I'd found it to be so romantic and cheerful that I'd kept the habit for myself ever since.