What is real?

"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."...

And so time went on, and the little Rabbit was very happy–so happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur was getting shabbier and shabbier, and his tail becoming unsewn, and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the Boy had kissed him...

Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much...

He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter.

And then, one day, the Boy was ill...

through it all the little Velveteen Rabbit lay there, hidden from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred,2

"How about his old Bunny?" she asked. "That?" said the doctor. "Why, it's a mass of scarlet fever germs!–Burn it at once.

The Velveteen Rabbit  Margery Williams

What is real

in these days

when everything is disrupted?

When everything that once seemed so important 

can so easily be set aside

with little to take its place.

What is real

when we have to avoid

those not of our household?

When we’re constrained

to “pass by on the other side.”

What is real

when we are aware of all that we have

and yet yearn for the freedom that is lost

and mourn opportunities that will not come again?

What is real

when we know solidarity

but long for solitude?

What is real

when we are constantly second guessing ourselves

and others

and have no capacity for either?

What is real

when our sleep is disturbed

when our minds are befuddled and slow

and focus is short?

What is real

when we know folks are doing their best

but we simply cannot watch another priest

break bread that we will not taste?

What is real?

And how soon can we get on

and burn all that once brought comfort

and start afresh

in a world

that does not forget disruption

but bravely forges

a new way forward

on things that we’ve discovered

are real?