I'll lay my wildflower hand
in your hand's white wicker basket
and bold-tender-shy I'll encircle you
as day and night would encircle
the trees of day and night
and my kisses will live like birds on your shoulder
Astrid Hjertenaes Andersen
We have grown together you and I
Like two trees I saw once
Sharing a common root
One tree gave shade,
The other light
The trees grew strong and tall together.
They protected one another.
One tree was home to the other
One tree was always looking out.
They endured the cold together.
They lived when there was no rain.
The trees shared sunlight and sky.
They shared earth and water.
The trees that I saw once
Grew together until at last
When winter came they died
And went back to the earth as one.
Nancy Wood
from The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams ...
RABBIT: "What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
HORSE: "Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. When someone loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
RABBIT: "Does it hurt?"
HORSE: "Sometimes. When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
RABBIT: "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?"
HORSE: "It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't 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."
