The Velveteen Rabbit

Hello everyone!

Today I am sharing a really amazing quote from the story The Velveteen Rabbit:

"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?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, 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,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or 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 our eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

-Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Interpretation/Thoughts:

This quote really got me thinking. It made me realize a few things. If everything in our lives had been perfect and if we had never needed to experience various hardships, would we be able to appreciate and understand the wonderful things in our lives? Would we be able to fully comprehend the greatness of beauty, grace, or love? Would we feel as deeply? Would we be the same people that we are now? Would we be able to say, "I cried, I was hurt, and I fell down, but that's how I knew how to appreciate laughter, healing, and standing back up?"

The imperfections and scars that the Skin Horse refers to should not hinder us or make us feel insignificant, but they should be reminders of how far we have come. Reminders of what it took for us to not only be able to receive love but for us to be able to give love as well.

Whatever our scars are, we shouldn't allow others' judgements or our own judgements to hold us back from living a full life. Why feel insecure or ashamed by what makes us who we are? Those scars are proof that we have "become." They are proof that we haven't given up, but that we are still going. They are proof that we are not perfect, fragile, porcelain dolls on a lofty shelf, but that we are picked up, beautifully loved, and beautifully and completely Real.

Thank you for reading. :) Hope your weekend is wonderfully real.

~foreverfaith <3