On dreams, friendships, bunnies, & Kate DiCamillo
“In the depths of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.”
—Albert Camus
I first met Belgian artist Pascal Lemaitre in 2001, and our friendship has grown closer each passing year . . . And I first met writer Kate DiCamillo in 2000, and our friendship has also grown closer each year.
Both of these relationships have been lynchpins in my life, reminding me always that even though so much may not be okay in the world, there is limitless beauty and hope to be found—in our friendships, in nature, and in generosity and openness toward one another.
Nearly a decade ago, I had a dream about Kate and me. We were on a roller coaster above the ocean—in a single cart on a single track, 12 feet above the waves. Our cart started moving, and we went up, and up and up, sitting side by side. But at the very top of that first incline, our cart stopped moving. We sat there. Kate looked at me and I looked at her.
She said, “What do we do now?”
I said, “We lean forward.”
For Christmas that year, I asked Pascal to draw this dream for me and Kate, and he obliged. But he turned us into bunnies, to show gentleness, whimsy, humor, and the universal quality of friendship.
And every Christmas since then, Pascal has drawn an image of the bunnies, based on something essential between me and Kate.
One year, he drew us huddled, with axes falling around us from the sky . . . but we were safe.
Another year, he drew us lying side by side on a pillow—this image came from an experience in our waking life—unbeknownst to each other, Kate and I had each bought exactly the same pillow sham and comforter, with the same loud and distinct pattern, far away from our usual sensibility—I didn’t know what to say when I saw her comforter and sham, at her house. . . Kate didn’t know what to say either. But it mattered to both of us, deeply—it was a hint at the mystery of the universe.
And then in this year’s bunny image, we are simply holding each other, sharing a mask.
Inspired by this extraordinary friendship, Rabbit and Bunny materialized from dream to book. I am “Bunny,” and Kate is “Rabbit.” We are on a journey together, a journey of noticing, a journey of gifts, a journey of the seasons. But more than anything, a journey about the unfailing possibilities the world holds, always and forever, despite everything. As Kate wrote to me once, “We have built ourselves a small steady flame in the lake of the woods of the world, and we are warm.”
It is this journey of hope and warmth that I wish for everybody, of every age.
With love,
Holly