The sliding board and the monkey bars

Can't remember where I was working.

Can't remember why it was such a bad day.

All I can remember is getting home late, just in time for bedtime with the kids.

Asked them all how their day was.

"Fine".

Except Zac. Who was 5.

"I had a great day, Dad."

"And what made it a great day?"

"They put in a new sliding board at school and it is long and smooth and fast and I went down it a hundred times today."

That's a good day.

My peanut 7 year old daughter is the monkey bar queen. She measures the quality of her day by how much time is spent on the bars. And how many new tricks she can do.

Everyday after school, to the monkey bars.

She swings like an orangutan. She now takes two bars at a time.

And the newest challenge is three bars at a time.

She can't do them all. Yet. In two weeks, she will.

Then she goes to the single bar and does flips and twirls on the high one and low one that make me nuts and makes her giddy. When she falls, she doesn't cry like she does when she stubs her toe at home. This is her world, and she is fearless.

"I'm ok daddy. Just a little fall. Watch this."

All she wants is her freedom to excel or fail and some attention for what she is accomplishing.

Is there really anything else we want in life?