Becoming "Real"

This morning, I was thinking about the twists and turns from my life, when the words of the Skin Horse from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams popped into my mind.

"Real is not how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. When you are loved for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loved, then you become real. When you are real, you don't mind being hurt. It doesn't happen all at once. 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. Once you are real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

These days, my body is definitely showing signs of wear and tear, I can only hope that I am becoming "real."