So far, I have lived a blessed life, full of God’s love and mercy, and showered with loved ones and priceless experiences. I know that I am so far beyond lucky. But this doesn’t mean I’ve avoided hardship–I’ve had difficult times and experiences, and I know there will be more in my future. My greatest blessing, though, has been to learn from those experiences and work them into making my life truly “real”. And my prayer for myself and for everyone: that we may continue to learn what it means to become “real” and then to make choices in our lives that reflect those lessons learned.
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. when a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become REAL.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.” For he was always truthful. “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But those things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”–The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
