Chapter 1: Good Morning

http://youtu.be/H7OnZCtISkI

Mandisa (feat. Toby Mac). "Good Morning." Rec. 1 Apr. 2011. Sparrow Records, 2011.

Part 1:The Playlist

Chapter 1:  Good Morning

“Dancing can be addictive if you like it.”
― J. Lynn, Wait for You

            Some people wake up to coffee every morning, but Lucy always woke up to music.  Just the right song would start off her day on the right foot.  From the sounds of the music coming from her radio, she knew that today would be awesome as she heard Mandisa and Toby Mac’s voices singing Good Morning: 

“Wave away my yesterday
Cause I'm leaving it behind me.
Hello sunshine, come what may.
I feel something new inside me.
I hear the birds singing
Now my alarm's ringing
Get up, get up, hey!”

She rolled out of bed, opened the blinds, and smiled.  Today was the day she started teaching Zumba at the Boomerang Valley Fitness Club.  She was so excited, she could hardly stand it.  She headed to the kitchen to grab a quick bowl of Cheerios mixed with Fruity Cheerios…not too boring and not too sweet.  Two of her four children were already awake and watching Saturday morning cartoons.  The other two teenagers were snoozing away their Saturday, as teenagers should.  Her husband, a basketball coach, had already left to coach a kids’ basketball clinic.  She sang the words to the song that had just woke her up…

“It's a good morning!
Wake up to a brand new day
This morning,
I'm stepping, stepping on my way
Good morning,
You give me strength,
You give me just what I need
And I can feel the hope that's rising in me.
It's a good morning.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.  Silently, she thanked God for the opportunity for her to finally be able to fulfill a lifelong dream of teaching dance.  God works in mysterious ways, she thought to herself.  She never thought in a million years that she would be teaching a group fitness class just a few blocks away.  Her husband, Drew, had bought her a membership to Boomerang Valley Fitness Club several years earlier.  At the time, Lucy had just had her fourth child and was in desperate need of getting back into shape but she had never ever been an athlete.  She laughed to herself as she remembered the first time she had stepped foot in the club.  She felt like someone had just given an illiterate person a library card.  Thankfully, on her first visit she was able to have a personal trainer who showed her all the equipment and proper use of it.  Now, six years later, Lucy finally felt like she belonged with all the other club-goers.  Oh sure, she didn’t have abs of steel like some of the women strutting around, but she felt healthier than she had her entire life.  She finished her bowl of cereal and went to her closet to get dressed…or “Zumba-fied” as her six year old daughter had called it.

She decided to wear black Zumba Cargo Pants along with her favorite purple sparkly Zumba tee.  A lot of instructors wore tank tops but Lucy was still too self conscious about her 40 year old body so she always opted for shirts with sleeves.  It was more modest that way, she reasoned to herself.  As she tied her Nike tennis shoes…not too loose and not too tight, her youngest daughter Jasmine came bounding onto her bed.  “Mama, can I go to Zumba with you?” she pleaded.  Jazzy, as her mom called her, had always accompanied Lucy to her Zumba classes but today was different.  Today was the day Lucy got to put on the headset and instruct!  She explained to Jazzy that today mommy needed to concentrate and be on her A-game.  Lucy promised her daughter that once she got good at teaching, she would let her tag along but for today she needed to fly solo.  A very disappointed Jasmine threw her arms around Lucy and hugged her tight.  “Are you so excited mommy?”  “Yes sweetheart,” Lucy replied as she smoothed her daughter’s golden brown hair out of her face, “more than words can express.”  Lucy picked up her youngest and swung her around in a circle and off the bed onto the floor.  “Hey, would you like to review the warm-up song with me one more time before I leave?”  “Uh-huh.” 

Lucy grabbed her iPod and cued up the song “Feel This Moment” by Christina Aguilera (feat Pitbull).  Jazzy had helped Lucy choreograph the entire song so she knew all the movements by heart. Lucy thought Jazzy looked so cute doing the merengue march and wished she could take her along but knew she had to be totally distraction free, at least for the first time teaching.  After all, the new owner of the club was going to be observing her today too.

The butterflies flitted around her tummy and she reached for her peppermint oil.  “This will calm my stomach,” she thought to herself.  She brushed through her thick, dark, shoulder length hair, thankful it was actually cooperating with her today.  Indeed, it was a good morning.  She opted to leave her hair down rather than throw it up in her usual ponytail.  “That way I will be able to do the Zumba hair flip and it will look awesome.”  Silly?  Yes.  But today Lucy wanted more than anything to prove she had what it took to teach a Zumba fitness class.  Her life coach had told her, “Act your way into a new way of thinking” and her brother in law had told her, “fake it till you make it”.  Lucy had helped her own Zumba instructor with choreography and she had always placed herself at the front of the room pretending that she was the actual instructor.  Lucy knew that she would no longer have to fake being a Zumba instructor ever again.  She had participated in a Zumba fitness class for two years and last week she had finally gone to receive her training and certify as a licensed Zumba instructor.  She gave herself another look in the mirror.  “Wow, with this purple on I feel like royalty.”  Jazzy chimed in, “Yes mommy…a Zumba Queen!”

Lucy slipped her lucky aqua blue Zumba bracelet on her wrist, added a dab of lipstick, and sprayed just a dash of Moonlight Path body spray, and she was ready to go.  She filled her water bottle, grabbed her sport sac, checked the battery life on her iPod, and headed towards the door.  “Good luck mommy,” Jazzy called out.  “You rock mom!  Have fun,” yelled her 11 year old son Justin.  “Oops, I almost forgot my choreo notes.” Lucy ran back into her bedroom and snatched them off the desk.  As she reached for them, she glanced up at the artwork above her bed.  A couple of years ago she had put together an art project reflecting her positive affirmation in vinyl lettering.  She read her affirmation out loud once more, “My life is my music…let’s dance!”