What Is Real?

Today at the Northern California Writing Project summer institute we answered the question "What does authentic mean to you?"  My friend, Katie, who is faster than I am when we ride bikes together and consequently must pay, wrote a beautiful list of authenticity in her own life.  It was compelling and inspired me to begin my own.  I hope to add to it as I discover more authenticity.

Authentic is...

the feel of Terry's cheek stubble as he kisses me goodbye in the morning

my yellow gingham baby pillow, torn and ratty from years of love

Tiffany

my nephew Landon running and squealing when we are close enough to see the park

my Gramma's diaries

my niece, Brittany, asking to have a sleepover at my house

the playful twinkle in Terry's eyes when he's about to engage in mischief

being brave enough to ask for help and then accept it.

my mom cooking sweetmilks Saturday mornings

Terry washing out the puke bowl when I couldn't make it to the bathroom

pedaling by my dad's headstone, fighting the lump in my throat

Chris

I leave you with a snippet of conversation from the lovely book, "The Velveteen Rabbit":

"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 the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all..."