The warrior goddess is well into her sixties and an awesome kind of beautiful. She wears camouflage leggings, a sports bra that barely contains her mammoth sisters and a shaved head that she dyes a different color every week.

She is my aerobics teacher, but I am convinced she is trying to kill me with a big rubber ball, a tiny trampoline, and a jump rope.

She throws a jump rope at the unsuspecting feet of each class member as she counts the second round of jumping jacks. We look at her - out of breath - like she is crazy.

"Jump!" She screams. No one jumps. "I said jump!"

She grabs her jump rope and whips it over her head with attitude galore.

"Okay, I'm game," I think. I whip my rope over my head too.

Up and down. Up and down I bounce. Fast - like Rocky in that movie.

[uh huh. I'm bad. Bring it warrior goddess!]

"Faster!" She yells.

We jump and jump and jump.

It feels like we have been jumping for years. The goddess has no concept of time because she keeps saying "5 minutes left" over and over again.

"Backwards!" She screams. [um...what?!]

"One leg! Faster!" The goddess switches to one leg. [one leg AND faster – how and why?!]

"Three minutes left!" [until I faint]

I refuse to give up though. The warrior goddess is trying to break me. If I have to crawl around with the rope, I will finish. I suck at jumping rope but I keep going.

"One minute left!" [finally]

Somewhere between the beginning and the end, I start laughing. I can't breathe. But I am laughing! My sisters are reaching toward my chin with every jump. My lovely junk in my trunk and my sumptuous thighs are jiggling like no tomorrow.

But I am laughing because I jiggle and I don't care and for crissakes - I am jumping rope - and I am finally free.

Free from assuming people are staring.

Free from caring about my jiggly bits more than enjoying the moment.

The warrior goddess forces me to challenge self-consciousness

And not be ashamed that my body is curvy and jiggly and luscious in a womanly kind of way.

I can be beautiful, even if I am clumsy, even if I jiggle

I easily finish that class last night [my second workout – woot!] compared to last December when I struggled through 10 minutes.

I, goddess-in-training- finished!! And me, my sisters and my jiggly bits are free.

Free to run and jump and play and not care who might be looking...

And that is the way it is meant to be.



To MISSTEA - for coining the term "sisters" because you are awesome like that :)

To my beautiful friends - be warrior gods/goddesses this weekend. It is good for you – like vegetables. And it is also fun. Woot!