What have we learned about Real from the Skin Horse and the Velveteen Rabbit? Well, we have learned the following:
- It doesn’t happen overnight
- It takes a long time
- It doesn’t happen all at once . . . you become
- It happens when you respond to love like that of a child
- It is a struggle
- It doesn’t often happen to people who break easily
- It doesn’t often happen to people who have sharp edges
- It doesn’t often happen to people who have to be carefully kept
- Becoming Real can wear you out
- Real can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand
As powerful as these truths are, one truth remains that actually creates a context for the previous truths in which they find lasting meaning. What is that truth? It is this: “Once you are real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
One truth about Real the Skin Horse failed to share is that Real is scary. It is downright scary sometimes. Once we open the door to the process of becoming Real, we subject ourselves to all kinds of unexpected experiences! Some of those experiences are exhilarating while others are demoralizing. Real is a state of being that attracts all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. Real is a way of living that invites all manner of opportunities that place us in the spotlight when we would rather watch from the safety of the balcony. Real is the ability to peer through the illusion that the counterfeit is genuine.
The world would have us believe that generated affectation is the same as process driven authenticity. Sometimes the pressure to give in, give up, go with the flow, stop asking questions, pretend that we don’t know what we know are too great and we knuckle under. We quiet our voice. We choose to ignore. We allow ourselves to swept along with the crowd. We silence our Realness.
As much as we might like to remain in the shadows and off of the front line, being Real demands that we get back in the game. Why you ask? The answer is simple: “Once you are real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.” When one becomes Real a material change takes place in the core of who we are. An eternal change. A change that blocks us from becoming permanently UNreal again. Why? Because REAL “lasts for always.”
Peace and . . . Realness!
Mark E. Hundley
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