Endowment Plus

Endowment Plus

(“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” 1 Peter 1:13)

He improvised a dance that delighted starlight,
steps unseen, light and pristine, with backdrops falling
like crystal confetti like vapor trails behind each leap and twirl.

He synthesized the structure which his muscles had memorized
in practice in private, before no one’s eyes. The mirrors were his
only judges, the note-beat-touch synchronized so well his body
met the music head-on and passed through it like liquid;
fluid and precise.

So when prompted to perform by the impromptu crowd,
he flashed the confidence of a thousand repetitions and
leapt upon their suggestion, a deer careening across the
evergreen brush like everyman walking home a completely
new direction. He did not fear the pauses,
and landed like prism light opening up the sun.

Only the closest few, the three, perhaps four, knew
the repeat completions he turned to perfection in the
quiet late and blurry early when no applause would be heard;
only the slow breath of one unhurried to string each unit
a symphony of movement;

While we watched, embarrassed into thinking he
never had danced this way before. While we watched,
commenting of born talent and gifts; silly and jealous
about genetics without

Learning the secret of repeating that turns effort
to effortless; endowment plus preparation.