Thanks for letting me share it. I made it for myself, after a great day caught me by surprise, so I could read about it on the days that were difficult.

I woke this morning, and something was different.

Nothing announced it. No great revelation, no sudden understanding. Just the quiet of a morning that asked nothing of me.

I turned in my bed. I sat up. I stood.

And somewhere between standing and taking that first step, I realized I hadn’t thought about any of it.

There was no negotiation. No wondering what the day would allow. No deciding what was worth doing and what would have to wait.

I simply walked.

I walked into the kitchen, reached for my coffee, bent to pick something off the floor, and stood again.

Such ordinary things. Such magnificent, ordinary things.

I thought about going outside, and then I went.

Not because I had carefully considered it. Not because I had saved enough of myself to make the journey.

I wanted to go, and that was reason enough.

The world hadn’t changed. The sun was the same sun. The birds sang the same songs. The people went about their business, unaware that something extraordinary had happened to one man that morning.

I had been given a day.

A whole day that belonged to me.

Not divided into what I could and couldn’t do. Not measured by how much I had left. Not borrowed against tomorrow.

Mine.

And I found myself smiling at things that deserved no particular smile.

A walk across the yard. A little work around the house. Standing in the sunshine with nowhere I needed to sit.

I could make plans without first asking permission from something I could neither see nor control.

And perhaps that was the greatest gift of all.

For once, I wasn’t thinking about myself. I was thinking about the world, and all the little things in it that I might like to do.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds. I have learned not to make promises on tomorrow’s behalf.

But today?

Today, I walk without thinking. I stand without effort. I move because I wish to move. I live because there is living to be done.

I have no crown. I own no kingdom. There are no servants at my door, no riches waiting in my name.

But I have something that no amount of gold could purchase.

For this one beautiful, ordinary day, my life belongs to me.

And today, I walk like a king.