Dear Reader:

As I watched trailers on the latest Pinocchio movie starring Tom Hanks … I was taken back to my childhood …watching it in the movie theater for the first time. I can still cry at the drop of a hat… in the scene when Jiminy Cricket stares out of Geppetto’s ( the puppet maker) window, sees the first star of the evening and starts to sing ” When you wish upon a star.”

Isn’t life about taking our wishes and dreams and turning them into ” real”… meaning … revealing the ” real” us? The tricky part, obviously, is transporting wishes there ( from our past) to reality here (in the present moment.) And though wishing on stars is fun and magically filled… the journey requires three tools-faith, love, and hope coupled with real courage and perseverance.

Think about it… every invention we take for granted today… began with a dream… but if the dream had never been transformed into reality… nothing would have changed us or the world around us.

The Velveteen Rabbit reminds us that becoming real takes a long time-in fact all our lives. It isn’t how we are made… it’s a thing that happens when love and worthiness are recognized in each of us… we are all contributing factors in ” keeping it real.” Real involves giving back to others.

In Pinocchio the blue fairy names three important criteria to becoming real… ” Be brave, truthful, and unselfish.” We need to grow and we need to give.

Being real describes being ” perfectly vulnerable humans.” It also means meeting the needs of the spirit while ” keeping self-worth tucked away in the confines of our soul.”

Tough journey, right? Exactly right. But… we don’t have to do it alone… in fact.. we can’t do it alone… because God, our guiding lantern, brings just the right people ( and animals) into our lives through ” God Winks” … those ” bread crumbs” for us to follow… to make us ” real”

So until tomorrow… Think about it… in the very beginning we are only real to our family who loves us… but if we are open to spreading kindness to others… we become real to all whom we encounter. And in spite of our unique situations-the greatest love and reassurance of our worthiness comes from God- our Creator- Who never stops loving us. REAL-Ly!