Health Voice File

Talk about your current state of health, any problem areas that have either gotten worse or better, things that you do that either help or seem to inhibit your ability to improve conditions.

Mundane Voice File

Talk about the weather, what you ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner, what home projects you are working on or should be working on, any upcoming travel, vacation or family visits.  You could also talk about sporting events, decoration ideas or recent outings and who you met.

Velveteen Rabbit

by Margery Williams

“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 often happen 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.”

“I suppose you are Real?” said the Rabbit.  And then he wished he had not said it for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.  But the Skin Horse only smiled.