Getting up early and walking in down along a river, across a meadow, or under the winter trees seems like such a small thing. But it happens that what is small becomes great, in what is irrelevant may be wisdom.

In these morning walks one can find that there is beauty and purity and the sacred in that sun coming over the hill to start the day. The challenge through life might be to retain enough of a youthful heart so as not to take it for granted, to have the eyes and ears and heart to understand that life begins new each day.

A uneven-eared puppy has joined our household and comes along on my dawn walks. The first day I took him on the path along the river he stopped on the bank and stared and listened to the moving water for a long time, trying to understand what this new thing was. He did the same thing when we encountered some Canada geese on the edge of the lake for the first time, adding the experience of these new creatures to his puppy knowledge.

This pup is a winter pup, born in November. He only knew the shallow frog pond as hard and smooth, a good place to play on with his buddy Cody, my other dog. The ice pond became one of his favorite stops. He would run around on the ice and 'Kiwabongaaaa!' jump on Cody. When tired the pup and Cody would lie down together and lick the ice.

A week ago the ice thawed off the pond. It was priceless to see the bewildered look on the face of this pup when he jumped on his pond and discovered that he did not everything there is to know about the nature of ponds. (that they can have 'in' as well as 'on'). What was hard and smooth was now wet and splashy and cold. He discovered something else, that he could swim. I watched him dogpaddle back to the bank with a confused worried puppy face, water dripping off his flopped-over ears.

Another regular stop of his is an old leaned-over cottonwood, whose huge trunk curves skyward in a lazy angle, perfect for pups to climb up on. He tugs at his leash as we get close to the tree, then climbs up to near above my head.

Today in the dim morning light a fox moved in the cattail marsh on the far side of the box elder, which is pretty exciting stuff for a young wild-hearted puppy up in a tree; another new experience to add to his short story of a dog's life.

Yeah, I do my dog Dad duty and take this little guy on walks every morning. But it seems like he might be leading me, back to a world where everything is new and exciting, where those whose hearts are simple and young face each new day with boundless happiness and joy.

Like the puppy, there is a lot I do not know. But I don't think knowledge is required to be happy, especially when the sky brightens in the East and I see that Spring morning star and the spruce trees reflected in the perfectly still lake, and I see the pure-hearted love of life in the face of my little pup.