“Once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand”

“Once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand”

Many of us have a favorite childhood book; one that was read to us by a parent, a grandparent, or librarian.  That book kind of sticks with you—forever.  When you think of it you kind of soften for a minute: relax your shoulders, inhale deeply, smell the pages, taste that memory. 

My favorite book as a child was “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams.  Just the sound of it makes me float around on a cloud with a smile on my face.  My mom read it to me, often.  And one year when I was seven years old, I received a real Velveteen Rabbit for Christmas; it was even in my stocking! It had pink satin ears, a pink velvety nose, and a one piece bunch bottom!  He was everything I could have imagined and the only thing I can even remember about Christmas that year.  I was instantly in love and I imagined he was real.  I loved that bunny so much that his ears eventually lost their pink satin and turned to white.  I wore holes in his stitching from all the holding and my mom spent many evenings sewing him up.  And although I don’t have much from my childhood, he is still around. 

A few years ago I gave him to my daughter.  She loved for me to read “The Velveteen Rabbit” to her just as much as I had loved it when I was a little girl.  He now has a few more hand sewn stitches than before and he even has a couple of patches that I sewed on one early Christmas morning after a mischievous puppy got to him.  

Our Velveteen Rabbit sits in our schoolroom now and he reminds me that Real happens over time and not all at once and that sometimes Real hurts.  But Real is always worth the late night stitches and hand sewn patches.