Velveteen Wisdom ~ My Books Are Real

I hope y'all like this. I enjoyed writing it more than I have enjoyed writing anything in a very long while. 

I first met Mal Macdonald in person during a fantastic week birding the northern Australian islands of the Torres Strait in March of 2024. He had first met me through my books. As I have said many times “If you’ve read my books, you have met me.” Those books genuinely are me (granted, mostly the better parts of me). 

The photo from the post that brought it all together for me. Thank you Mal.

The other day, Mal sent me a photo of himself holding well-worn, well-enjoyed copies of “An Australian Birding Year” and ”More Australian Birding Tales”. I love hearing about my words connecting with people. And then I realised that those two books, as well as some other people’s copies, have been read, and reread, and dare I say it, they have actually been loved. 

And then an awesome thought hit me. 

I thought about one of the most wonderful books ever written, “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams. It is a children’s book that was written in 1922, but it is brilliant and timeless. It’s the story of a toy rabbit learning about what it means to become real. It happens with love.  

I will quote a small portion of the book about becoming real. 

“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.”

Once my books were read and reread by people, that is when they became real. It was not when they were first officially published and distributed. It was not when they were first in stores, or for sale online, or even (and I do love this) on the shelves of a library. 

I have about a score of screen caps of AABY being a number one best seller on Amazon

What Mal wrote in his post that inspired this writing. Again, thank you my friend.

It was when they were loved that they became real books.

When I learned that some people had carried them along on their travels into the bush, or out on the sea, or anywhere, because they wanted to take those tales with them, that was when I knew they were real books and that I had done something. 

I suppose I have done a few somethings. I’ve written and sung a lot of songs. I recorded albums and some people own the CDs (or even cassette tapes) of the albums. Mostly they have them and listen to them digitally nowadays. But however they hear me, I am still the one singing my words to them. And yes... some of them love some of my songs, my real songs. 

2008 doing that other something that I did so well back then.

And again, it is when they are loved that they become real.

It is in sharing that my heart can appreciate that I have indeed done something. Through that sharing I have ‘become’. For me, sharing is love. At my age I have become quite wrinkled and a bit shabby and some of my joints are loose. But I am real.

Sending real love and real gratitude. 

Life: Been there. Done that. ❤️