Recently, I have been doing a lot of soul searching and can actually say that I am finding myself. And as I discover new things (or old things) about me, I learn that there are things I want to improve about who I am and how I interact with this world.
Recently, I picked up a copy of Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. I finished the book and am excited to begin on a journey to be the author of my own life... as scary as that might be for someone like me!
In the final chapter, where she sums up how this process might unfold, she cites a quote from the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. In the story, two nursery toys are talking about becoming Real. This passage brought me to tears because... I get it!
"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 often happen 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."
Ohhh, the Velvetine Rabbit!! So straight-forward, so honest and so REAL. In my opinion, one of the very best books ever written.
ReplyDeleteBonnie