The Velveteen Rabbit: A Bedtime Story

'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.”

I found myself returning to this story after years away from it, having only a faint memory of a sense of magic and wonder within the book. I wanted to share that magic with my daughter. When I read it again to her as an adult, I found it to be even more heartfelt than I remembered.

In philosophy, the concept of "becoming" explores the process of change, transformation, and evolution. In this beautiful story, a stuffed toy rabbit travels on a path toward greater authenticity...toward becoming Real.