The Velveteen Rabbit

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "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?" 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 your eyes drop out and you get loose in your 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."

This has always been one of my all time favorite quotes. There is so much superficiality out there; it's often hard for me to seperate it from genuine, sincere, REALness. Our focus on appearance is overwhelming. One of my biggest things is to never be stagnant. The smell of stagnant water stinks. It is not enough to be merely treading water all the time. I want to be a doer and a go getter. I want to make change, I want to affect people in a positive way. I don't want to be "getting by"or "going through the motions". I also never want to be caught in a situation where I "settle" and take something that's easy, comfortable, or convenient. I want to always stay true to who I am, but I want to let others in. I want to learn from others, and not be afraid to really feel. I will accomplish this with heart, not vanity.