Velveteen Rabbit

I love The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.  It has always been one of my favorite children's story.  It was one of the first books I bought when I found out I was having a baby. 

I have a bunny rabbit who I swear will be real one day.  I received him as a gift from my Aunt when I was around 3 years old.  That rabbit has been through a lot with me.  He's been dragged every where that I went.  When I was sick he went to bed with me.  When I'd visit my dad as a teenager he went with me.  There was one summer where my friends took to calling my "Bunny" as I had my rabbit with me, even though I was 16.  My kids love my bunny now too.  They play with him, they sleep with him, they love him like I do.  Even to this day when I am sick and curled up in bed I will snuggle with my rabbit and feel a little better.  He's old and falling apart.  His fur is matted and missing a few patches.  His eyes are chipped.  He is currently missing an ear; I think I know where it is though.  When it is found he'll go in for surgery for ear repairs.  My brothers would tease me that my rabbit needs to be burned, as he's so old and tattered.  I think he's just loved and has a lot of love to be had in him.

"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 howyou 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.

"Sometime," 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 wond 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 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."