"An old skin horse that had been in the toy box for many years talks to a newcomer stuffed rabbit about being real.
"What is real?" asks the rabbit one day. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," replies the old horse.
"It's a thing that happens to you. You see, when a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real. It does not happen all at once. It usually takes a long time. By the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop out, you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't really matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly except to the people who don't understand."
People are looking for someone who is real. They don't need someone who pretends to have all of the answers; just someone who is willing to be vulnerable enough to come and place themselves in someone else's world at the risk of being hurt-emotionally, mentally, physically. When that's done on a consistent basis, something happens to both the giver and reciever."
A portion taken from Whose Child is This?, by Bill Wilson.
