Velveteen Rabbit, Billy Ocean, and A New Tattoo (trust me I'm going to make this work)

“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 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, The Velveteen Rabbit

Yesterday afternoon my oldest daughter and her choir put on a concert for a 90 year old woman who has been an active influence in the world of art and music here in Reno for over 50 years. It was an awesome event to celebrate her life and while I watched her play on stage with the other band members I started to think about the above quote. I absolutely love the above quote.  It really applies to life as a human being as well as life as a Velveteen Rabbit. I miss the days of reading the Velveteen Rabbit, but when I was a child I never even knew the depth of this quote. One of the main reasons I love that quote is because it reminds me that life is a process. There is no final, or test that you take to say you have graduated, or you have now become who you are going to be.  You just become. It really does take a very long time to become. In watching the 90 year old woman last night I thought to myself, not even this lady has become. She still has more memories to make and more lessons to learn, although it seems hard to believe but I bet if you asked her she would tell you that it's true. You never stop learning. You never stop becoming.  It really does take a long time to become. Upon turning 40 years old I thought if a person was ever going to be done with the whole becoming process it should be about half way through this life don't cha think?  But no, as it turns out, it's really not even close. I mean, sure it's closer than it was when I turned 20 but still so much more becoming is needed. I look at older ladies in my life and see how secure they are in their skin and how confident their voices are and  I think I want that even more than I have it now, but I'm pretty sure its wrapped up in... you guessed it... more becoming. It really does take a long time to become. I don't want to be one that breaks easily either.  There's a scripture in Proverbs that says,   "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small."  This scripture has always reminded me of that old Billy Ocean song, When the going gets tough the tough get going! I think we should listen to that song and have a little dance party at the end ...  What do you say, who's with me? Let's get back on topic for now though...  The wisdom in that proverb is that in this life there are going to be days, weeks, maybe even months or quite possibly years of adversity but that is when we have to push through and keep looking up, or  work on those tough muscles or get going like Billy says! Speaking of looking UP, this past Friday I finally got Carl here, from the Disney movie UP tattooed on my inner arm. Can you say OUCH!!

He (Carl) is a perfect example of this becoming business. He thought when his wife died his becoming was over... but OH what joy awaited him when he started to become someone else, someone he always wanted to be. I'm going to move on because even just thinking about that movie gets me weepy. (Because remember when Isaiah turned 5 and had an UP themed bday party?)

I'll be honest, one of the reasons that scripture has always stood out to me is because I don't like adversity. I don't do hard or complicated or tough very well.  I like happy, sunny, champaign wishes and caviar dreams, (only minus the caviar... bleh!) But real life is not like that.  We have to go through the bad that makes the good that much more betta! It really does take a long time to become.
And let's talk about sharp edges.  Have you ever noticed those grumpy old people with so many edges it's hard to be the same room with them? Kinda like Carl before he met Russell. Don't cha just love that Russell kid? Oh wait, sorry I keep getting distracted all I know is that I don't want to become... like that. I know for me there is still so much more life ahead and rather than being worn out and leathered by the storms of life that come my way I want to be like a fine wine that only gets better, not the kind that turns to vinegar. So that being said, let's become well together and don't forget to DANCE!!