Today, I took my two youngest to the park to play.

Little did I know that I was going to bear witness to determination and perseverance in action, right before my eyes.

My little six year-old never made it past two monkey bars before today, but this was his day, and those monkey bars belonged to him.

I watched, as time and again, he tried and fell, but I would look at him and ask, “Parker, why do we fall?”

With courage and stubborn tenacity, he would look up at me and grasp my outstretched hand, “So we can get back up again, Daddy!”

He went further and further with each successive dusting off and repeated attempt, smiling through the frustration.

He began to smile at the failures.

He laughed every time he fell.

Then, I saw it happen.  

He made it.

When he did, he rushed straight into my arms for one of the biggest hugs I can recall in recent memory.

To commemorate his feat of unbreakable will, we made the following video tonight, and I wanted to share it here: