From fallow fields, flowers bloom

Today, I find an angel.

You know, there are those times with a young dog where very little seems to happen. You plant the seeds, water them, watching every day for those little green sprigs of life to emerge.

And then, it doesn't happen.

So you plant again. Water. Re-water. Check the directions on the fertilizer package, gather up all your nerve and try again.

And then, one day, something magical happens.

I had a day like that tonight with Samurai. Actually, I hadn't gone into the situation even expecting a lot, if anything. I had really gone to set up a portion of a course of a certain judge for a friend who had entered a trial under this judge.

And so...Samurai, out of nowhere, just bloomed. It was just one of those "lawn mower man" moments when all those bits of information I'd been feeding seemed to start kicking in, making sense and running all sorts of wild and brilliant calculations.

It was like the field I had been carefully tending suddenly burst forth with flowers of every shape and color. And at every turn there were more, surprising and full of sunny hope.

Gosh, where does this come from. These sudden, inspired leaps of learning. When just days ago I thought maybe Sam might be one of those dogs who would have a career of fits and starts, who would run gorgeously in an empty room, but would never run to his potential outside it.

Well, we're a long way from knowing how this will all turn out. But today, this one day, we danced together in harmony.

And for this one day, it's enough.