I was sitting outside alone on my patio enjoying another beautiful Saturday morning in late July drinking my coffee. My wife, daughter and two crazy dogs still soundly sleeping on the second floor. It wouldn’t be long now before they were all up and the day would “officially” begin.

The freshly cut grass was still damp from the last night’s thunderstorms but its smell still reminded me of summer. I heard the familiar call of the locusts making their presence known. The sound of which announcing that August was but a few days away.

Before too long, the season of leaves changing colors and colder temperatures will be upon me again but that only made me appreciate this day even more.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and inhaled life. All the while thinking, “I’m forty something years old and it’s great to be alive.” I tend to think that from time to time. More often now that I’m older. There’s a sort of oneness I have with God, Nature, whatever you want to call it, when I have this quiet time.

I’ve been doing a lot of social network stuff lately. Whether it’s posting funny status updates on Facebook, announcing my affinity for television shows and sports on Twitter or reading critical comments on my music articles (c’mon dude – you’re nit picking a typo – sheesh!).

I’ve also been doing a lot of catching up with old high school classmates. Something I really enjoy doing. In fact, I’ll be attending another semi-reunion in a few weeks at Musikfest where I’ll reunite with some people I haven’t seen in years. Who knows, we might even do some walking through the park and reminiscing.

Just the other day I friended a girl–well, now “woman”, who was in my homeroom for most of my time in school.  I haven’t seen her since graduation but the two of us had coincidentally shared the exact same birthday. I remember always making mention of that “bond” with her every year as our big day approached.

Now, almost 25 of those birthdays have passed and I had not even thought about that birthday bond until I saw her picture. I love being reminded of things like that.

When ever I reconnect with someone from the past it’s surreal. I know we are all now forty-somethings and have all experienced adult life. We’ve gone to college, gotten married, had children, bought a home. Everything expected of us as members of society. The thing is, when I see these wonderful people none of that matters to me. I still see us as we “were” not as we “are” (having a career, paying bills, taking vacations).

I realize that we all have lives now and some of our children are even at the age we were when I last saw them but I like to remember the innocence we had. Not some forty-something with a bunch of adult responsibility, but a time when the future and possibility was wide open.

Well, my coffee cup is empty and the dogs are at the door wanting to join me on the patio. Looks like the day is ready to officially begin.