today is the day.

I woke up this morning at 6:20. Why? My grandfather thought that we had school today.

Crazy thing is, as tired as I was, and believe me I was tired, I couldn't get back to sleep. At first I thought to myself, "no big deal, it's Monday and it's a holiday. I'll just sleep it off.

Haha. I couldn't.

Frustrated, I turned and smacked my hand against my alarm clock (not ringing at the time,) groped around for the on switch, and pushed it with my thumb.

Lincoln Brewster's rendition of "Today is the Day." This song was my favorite maybe two months ago, but it long since was replaced by the rambunctious music of August Burns Red, Notorious BIG, and Skillet.

The crazy thing is, on a Monday morning where I would have just rolled over and been lazy for another three hours, I couldn't help but sit up in my bed and think about the lyrics.

"Today is the day, you have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Haha. Wow you know what, when you put it like that...

Considering the generation I live in, this is a pretty bold statement, but you know what? Forget doing nothing. Forget being lazy. Forget sleeping in. Forget whatever.

Thank you, God for waking me up. If you didn't do that I'd still be asleep, maybe dead right now. I think that's one of the things we take for granted. We see God almost as a US President times infinity, with just power and authority. But there is something totally obvious we have missed every morning and night.

He let's us go to sleep. He wakes us up.

I mean, if he didn't wake us up or allow us to wake up in the morning every day, how much would that suck? You'd still be asleep, dead or not it doesn't matter, what matters is that you would be technically dead.

It's those tiny things in life that we barely think about, like waking up, or breathing, or heart pumps.

If you need a reason to be thankful, bam. Start with that one.

balance.

I was training on the playground about half a mile run from my house the other day, and the specific workout that I was doing was about balance.

You see, the playground was enclosed by a long series of wooden beams nailed together to encase the sea of woodchips that was the playground's... well, ground. The top of these beams rose just enough to be about three or four inches off the ground. Because of this, it was easy to determine whether or not you were balancing on the sucker or not.

I would traverse along the beam, do a two footed jump to a bench, turn around and land right on the three inch wide beam. I just kept doing this over and over again.

After a while, though when my legs were sore and my abdominals were about to give in to cramping, I laid on the bench and started thinking.

You see, every jump that I took, every placement of the foot that I made, every little strength calculation I did to ensure that I nailed each and every jump was all in the spirit of achieving a sense of freedom.

Playgrounds are dense areas, hard to get through and very limiting. Children playing on the structure can only do so much as their bodies and imagination can take them. When they see a playground, they think monkey bars. Slides.

When I see a playground, I think limitless possibilities.

I guess this is why I took up this sport. Every jump that I made, every little scary thing I got over, I was always one step closer to achieving freedom in movement. I was calm, mentally and physically capable, accurate, graceful, silent, and resilient.

I find freedom in the way I move, especially when I'm flying through the air and landing perfectly on a railing, or leaping off a bridge and rolling away.

People ask me a lot of questions about this sport. "Are you an adrenaline junkie?" No. In my two years of training never have I felt an adrenaline rush. "Have you ever been injured?" No, because through my practice I've drawn a distinct line between what I am capable of doing and what I am not.

PARKOUR develops a strong body, strong mind, and strong spirit. You develop self control, self awareness, and confidence in all aspects of your life.

Take it up now.