So I am going to cheat a little bit. Today’s Virtual Book Club post is on Chapter 3 and it is ‘supposed’ to follow the guidelines that I set up at the beginning- summary, favorite quote, questions. But I’m going off course.

I have been super stressed about getting this post written this week. Moving has kicked in to high gear as we pack, close and begin work on the new house on Friday. I looked at Chapter 3 yesterday and discovered that it was the really long chapter.  I wondered how I was ever going to get it done.

And then I remembered that is is the Velveteen Rabbit chapter. This chapter ends with one of my favorite passages of all time. And this is a chapter in a book about knowing that you are enough right where you are. So instead of stressing and writing what I am ‘supposed’ to write, I am going to share the quote. And that is all. I want to remind each of you what Brene Brown writes at the end of this chapter and what my mom reminded me of when she gave me the Velveteen Rabbit above for my birthday this year.

“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.”

“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.”

-Margery Williams, Velveteen Rabbit