“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day … “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.”

 

Margery Williams – The Velveteen Rabbit

 

To hear this reading, just after we finished recording our podcast episode on “trusting the process,” was a sort of double whammy for me. We had been talking about how it is a process, that it is gradual, and that we have to trust that it will happen, if we work for it. The gifts that I have received from the program were not something I could do for myself. The suggested Al-Anon closing says “… you will come to love in a very special way, the way we already love you.” Through that love, over the months and years, I am becoming more Real. And yes, there are times when it hurts. There are times when I wish I was still encased in my old shell, numb to the woes of live. But, as the Skin Horse says, “when you are Real, you don't mind being hurt.” I know that if I shut out pain, I also shut out joy. I choose pain, so that I can also have joy.

A meditation for April 1, 2013.

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken,
Who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dyin'
That never learns to live.