Playground Parkour

You know those moments that you look back on and think to yourself "I should have taken a little more time with my decision..."? Or maybe that moment when you realize you should think before speaking? I have those now and then.

Monday, I went to eat lunch with Kiera at school. I stopped and picked up a pizza on the way.

"Hi, Mama!" She greeted me enthusiastically in the school office. "Pizza!"

I hugged her and we decided that we would take our lunch out to the pavilion in front of the school. We had a great time, laughing and discussing her day. Once we finished, we still had time to hang out.

"Let's walk around," Kiera suggested.

I agreed and we began walking over to the skate park. We made our way to the center of the skate park and sat down on one of the obstacle pieces.

"Think I can run up one of the ramps?" Kiera asked grinning.

"I bet you can!" I replied.

Do you see where this is going?

Kiera stood, lining herself up with the ramp. "Ready? Set. Go!" She yelled as she took off running.

She made it almost to the top, hesitated and slid back down.

"You hesitated!" I yelled laughing.

"I'm going to try again." She stated as she lined up again with the ramp.

Once again, she took off running, made it almost to the top and slid back down. By this time, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were dancing with laughter.

"You try!" She said to me as she made her way back to where I was sitting.

Now, this is the part where there should have been a pause. Just to be clear... there was no pause.

"All right!" I responded standing up.

Not once did I consider that I was wearing my comfy Bobs that don't offer a lot of traction. Now that I think more about it when I bought them there was no small piece of paper that said they would be great for trying to run up slick ramps.

I lined up so that I would run dead center up the ramp and waited for Kiera to count me down.

With a huge grin on her face, Kiera began, "Ready? Set! GO!" She yelled.

And again, without any thought or hesitation, I went. I ran... probably not as fast as I could... but I ran up the ramp and as I reached the top, I realized there was absolutely nothing to grab on to.

Enter the moment of hesitation.

Just so you know, when you hesitate at the top part of a slick ramp, you don't actually balance. In fact, you land face down. One moment I was standing up, the next moment my body had conformed to the ramp, the air being shoved out of my body with the force of landing on the ramp, and sliding down to the bottom, ever so gracefully.

Somehow, I quickly rolled to my back, hopping to my feet. Kiera was laughing hysterically and all I could do was laugh with her.

I can't even imagine what it looked like from an outside's perspective. I am actually hoping that everyone that was driving by did not witness my amazing moment.

It definitely made for a memorable lunch. In fact, I am certain it will be one of her favorite memories for quite a while.

And, let's be honest. I am pretty sure I will be feeling this memory tomorrow.

Rowonna McNeely her husband, Aaron are regular volunteers in the community, and have their hands full with their daughter, Kiera, along with three dogs and one cat.

Thank you for sharing in our weekly journeys. If you have missed any of our past stories, check out our blog page at www.lifea2k.net or drop us a line at lifea2k@yahoo.com.