Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Baby, baby!

This post is in honor of my niece, Lily Rae, who will soon be ten months old, has already been weened from the boob, gotten a tooth, and learned to walk. Oh, and apparently she knows all she needs to to get along in the world. Perhaps she went right from nine months to nineteen years old. They grow up so fast these days!

On the wall of her nursery, my brother-in-law painted the quotation (that I suggested, by the way):

Babies are bits of stardust, blown from the hand of God. - Barretto

What a wonderful thought! We start from somewhere (and thing) divine enough to think we deserve to be born in such a remarkable way. Like the potter, the glass-blower, the painter.

But as children often do, Lily reminded me of some of my favorite quotes that remind us of the wonder and imagination of childhood.

I hope you enjoy!

"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 your 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

"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you." - A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

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