As I was reading our old, torn copy of The Velveteen Rabbit to my daughter today, I came across these passages:
"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, you become Real. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and you get very shabby."
....The little Rabbit was so happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur was getting shabbier, and his tail coming unsewn, and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the Boy had kissed him.
....One day the Boy was ill. His face grew very flushed, and his little body was so hot that it burned the Rabbit when he held him close. It was a long weary time....
Presently the fever turned, and the Boy got better. The doctor ordered that all the books and toys that the Boy had played with in bed must be burned.
And so the little Rabbit was carried out to the garden. Nearby he could see the raspberry canes, in whose shadow he had played with the boy, and a great sadness came over him. Of what use was it to be loved and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.
And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a flower grew. And out of it there stepped a fairy. She kissed the little Rabbit on his nose.
"I am the nursery magic Fairy," she said. "I take care of all the playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn out and the children don't need them anymore, I come and take them away with me and turn them into Real."
"Wasn't I Real before?" asked the little Rabbit.
"You were Real to the boy," the Fairy said, "because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to everyone."
from The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
As I read these passages, I thought about being a mother to my precious children, and how much more real, rich and full, my life is since I learned to give it away. Maybe my eyes have wrinkles and shadows, maybe my belly is round and soft where it once was firm and flat, maybe my body has stripes and spots where it didn't before, but those are all indicators that I have LIVED. I hope to live my life in such a way that when my body is old and worn out, an angel will come and take me away and turn me into REAL. I believe that this opportunity is given to each of us, whether we are parents or not...we choose whether to give our life away, or keep it to ourselves. I hope that we will choose to love and be loved, to wear out our lives in service and love for our fellowman, for that is the only way to truly become REAL.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."
Luke 9:24
