A Red Leaf, a Bad Day, and a Dance Class

     I can remember sitting in the passenger seat of my mom's car one glum afternoon and thinking to myself for the first time, Today was a bad day.  I started to replay the days events over in my head, getting gloomier and gloomier by the minute.  Soon enough we arrived at our destination, my Grandma's house. (Because I can't help but to mention her in every blog. She's that awesome.) As I descend towards the front door, something red catchers my eye in the green of the grass.  It's just a leaf, that happens to be red, but it stops me in my tracks.  It's the first red leaf of the year, and I have to show my Grandma. I pick it up and as I do I drop all of the gloom that has been following me around all day.  As I race towards the front door now, leaf in hand, a fleeting thought crosses my mind... Maybe today isn't so bad after all.  

    I'm a lot older now but this week I had what by 7 a.m. in the morning I had already deemed, "A Bad Day."  I was awoken in the middle of the night by a pesky nosebleed, I couldn't find a parking spot at school, everyone was getting on my nerves.. ya know just one of those days.  By the time I was on my way to the dance studio, I was done.  I had lost my voice.  Teaching a dance class was going to be rough.  Or so I thought.  It's turns out my group of twelve Kindergartner's had other plans.  Instead of me teaching them, they ended up teaching me a thing or to.

   Upon entering the dance room I noticed that about half of the class was already in the room, sitting patiently criss-cross applesauce on the floor. I joined them, unprepared for what the next hour would entail.  Shall we call it a series of mood altering events?  Let's make a list:

 "J" enters the room, presenting me with a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers that she has picked for me from her farm.

  She drew me a picture too.

   "M" cuddles up right next to me and tells me she has a secret, and whispers in my ear "You are my favorite dance teacher ever!"

  "JC" enters the room, tackles me with a bear hug, kisses me on the cheek, tells me she loves me... and I think she may have even asked me to marry her somewhere in between...

At this point I take a deep breath and in my whisper voice explain my situation to them...

  "K" looks at me quizzically, hits her palm against her forehead and shakes her head.  I laugh. 

  I ask them what Disney princess this reminds them of, and they all know the answer. 

We start class.

 I lead them in warm-up.  They follow. 

 I point to the left side of the room, they go line up to go across the floor.

  I do the beginning step of their ballet dance, they rush to their beginning spots.

 The "big kids" class comes over, they show them our dance. They clap for us enthusiastically. 

. The other classes teacher looks impressed and says to me, "They did changements!  They're too little!" 

  I motion over to their dance bags, they quickly put on their tap shoes.

 Etc, etc, etc.

As I left I thought to myself, They were so good today!  But that was a lie, because that's how they are every class.  Each class I am bombarded with smiles, giggles, hugs, and yes sometimes even marriage proposals.  They remind me of a lesson that I learned a long time ago.  There are no bad days.  There may be bad moods or bad moments, but when you least expect it you just might catch a glimpse of that little red leaf that turns your day around.

 -L
I wish you all a happy Fall!  May we all dance in many piles of crunchy leaves!!!  :)