NEWS:

LEGENDARY NICK WALLENDA COMPLETES HIS FIRST HIGH WIRE WALK: a principle of balance.

       Nik Wallenda is an entertainer who wants to not only thrill hearts, but to change hearts for Christ. Christ is the balance pole that keeps him from falling.

  He is popularly known as "King of the High Wire," who doesn't know fear. As a seventh generation of the legendary Wallenda family, he grew up performing, entertaining, and pushing the boundaries of gravity and balance.

         When Nik was four years old, he watched a video from 1978 of his great grandfather, Karl Wallenda, walking between the towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico, stumbling, and falling to his death because of improper rigging. When Nik heard his father quote his great-grandfather-"Life is on the wire, everything else is just waiting"-the words resonated deep within his soul and he vowed to be a hero like Karl Wallenda.

     Balance is the theme of Nik's life: between his work and family, his faith in God and artistry, his body and soul. It resonates from him when performing and when no one is looking. When walking across Niagara Falls, he prayed aloud the entire time, and to keep his lust for glory and fame in check, Nik returned to the site of his performance the next day and spent three hours cleaning up trash left by the crowd.

       ''Praise You God, thank You Jesus!" exclaimed Nik Wallenda with hands raised in the air, after completing his first high-wire walk, Sunday night, between skyscrapers in Chicago, with no net, and no tether.

About 500 feet up over the Windy City, Nik did what he does best, and made walking a high-wire the width of a penny, look easy.

       The feat was a two-part walk—the first one up a difficult incline to a higher building—and although he decided not to stop to take a "selfie" during it because of the wind, the stunt went smoothly; under 7 minutes long.

Dare I say, a cakewalk?

        Nik's second tightrope walk of the night was shorter, but he was blindfolded—relying on a "pinging beacon" and his father's voice at the other side, to guide him. The second walk took only 80 seconds.

Not the least bit shy about his Born-Again Christian faith, Nik gave God the glory, as he has in previous high-wire walks; over the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls.

         Nik Wallenda has certainly earned the title of "King of the High Wire," as he set two world records with Sunday night's walks between Chicago skyscrapers.

(Oh, by the way, that's "s-k-y-s-c-r-a-p-e-r-s" for those setting trends in the Twitterverse, who sadly misspelled the word as the trend "#Skyscrapper" Sunday night)

Perhaps Nik's answer to how he does it, could prove good advice for all of us in every spectrum of life these days: "Just stay calm and focus on that next step. There is no time for fear to enter into your mind," says Nik. 

Of course many want to know when will he stop and say "this is enough."

Nik answered that question on the TODAY Show, Monday: "I really do feel like I'll know when enough is enough, and it may be soon. My great grandfather did lose his life and it really had to do with his physical ability... he couldn't hold on when something happened. I've trained to hold on to that wire if something happens... And I always tell my family; 'When you think it's time, let me know and I'll give it up.'"

But for now, Nik is moving on to his next stunt: recreating his great grandfather's greatest walk,Tallulah Gorge, in Georgia—600 feet-high, 1,000 feet long. 

Nik said his great grandfather, Karl Wallenda did "two headstands on the wire. I've never done a headstand on the wire in public; I'm training for that."

        That wire walk will be extra special for Nik as Karl Wallenda's walk was filmed by the BBC, and Nik wants to perform the stunt "alongside" his great grandfather using that film.

click to HERE watch the live video of Nik's feat.

cl