reluctantbuddha:

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. ”Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“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 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 your 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.”

(via alanajoy)

1. dreaming-of-isis reblogged this from reluctantbuddha
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10. vennofv reblogged this from alanajoy and added:

    Such an amazing story...growing up good.

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    This is very sweet and one of my all-time favorite children’s stories - BUT - if my niece Caroline’s Build-A-Bear that...

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20. lawful reblogged this from iambal and added:

    Hey, we just finished reading that.

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    aww this is one of my favorite books ever. thinking about it makes me really, really nostalgic to be little again.

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38. iammiki reblogged this from suitep and added:

    children’s stories always always...deeper meanings when re-read as an adult.

39. iambal reblogged this from shetoldmesomemore and added:

    Wow. Why does stuff like this turn up on my dashboard riiiight at the perfect moment??

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    I had a ratty (but impossibly soft) stuffed rabbit that I would cuddle with when my parents read this story to me a long...

44. ineedtoo reblogged this from sade and added:

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to...

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    alanajoy: “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before...

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