Newborn, Baby and Wedding Photography in Melbourne :: Kristen Cook {The Blog}

{Photo-a-Day Project: A personal project that I undertake every January for an entire month taking one photo a day of my children.}

“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, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

- The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

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I was just going to leave today’s entry with this passage, but I simply cannot without telling you why I chose it for today.
When my husband and I were married almost seven years ago, this was one of the readings we chose for our ceremony.
It meant so much then, and now when I read it and gaze with such love at these beautiful creatures we created, it’s taken a new life.
Beautiful little people who love us – even after our hair has been pulled out, one too many raspberries have been blown on soft bellies, and backs have been jumped on.
They make us real.
We have become real.
They give us purpose.
They are the true beauty of my tomorrow.