How old is Judgy Bunny?

Judgy Bunny first hopped into Gramma Sir’s imagination in 2020 while she was on a silent meditation retreat. On Day 3, she had just finished a group sitting, and she was judging herself for not doing a better job staying focused.

Trying to practice self-compassion, she heard a gentle voice in her head say “oh my, you are being an awfully judgy bunny.” Her heart opened a little. Then a cow mooed in the distance, and she smiled thinking about what could happen if a little bunny judged a cow because, well, what does a Bunny know about being a cow!

“This is a book,” she thought, and as soon as she got home from the meditation retreat on Day 10, she wrote the first manuscript. (She couldn’t write it any sooner because even though pens are quiet when used correctly, they are not allowed on silent meditation retreats.)

What took Judgy Bunny so long to be published?

Bunny had so much to learn! First, even though picture books are short, they are very hard to write, and Bunny had a lot of revising to do.

Second, for a long time Bunny let other people judge her, and she pitched a lot of fancy agents hoping they would help make her book. (They did not.)

Finally, Bunny spent a long time judging she wasn’t a good enough artist to illustrate her own story. It wasn’t until a near-tragedy in 2023 when she got hit by a car while walking across the street and almost lost the use of her right arm (and her life), that she finally decided to stop judging and start believing in herself. (It took some more time for her body to heal and to really truly start believing after that, though.)

In other words: only when she stopped judging Bunny was Judgy Bunny finally ready to come play!   

Does Judgy Bunny like chocolate milk?

Yes! There is a lot of fresh milk on the farm where she lives and adding chocolate is her favorite. Sometimes she also makes her own milk out of oats, but she is allergic to almonds, so she doesn’t milk those.

What if Bunny had judged other bunnies instead of Horse, Pig and Goat? Would her judgments have been better?

No, Bunny probably would have misjudged other bunnies, too. One of the reasons why judging others doesn’t help is that we don’t really know what it is like to be someone else—even when they seem similar to us. Rather than judging others, we should do our best to understand their experience by being kind and curious, whether they are a bunny, goat, bear, or octopus. 

Does Judgy Bunny know the Easter Bunny?

Yes. The Easter Bunny once asked Judgy Bunny for advice on the best way to hide eggs. She judged that hiding ostrich eggs might make them easier for kids to find. The Easter Bunny had never met an ostrich and thought those eggs sounded too heavy, so that probably won’t work out, but they are still friends.

Is Judgy Bunny a real bunny?

Kind of. You see, even though my ears point in the same direction, sometimes I’m hard on myself about other things I want to get perfect, so I have a little judgy bunny inside me. I think a lot of kids and grownups do that sometimes, too, and that makes Bunny real for many of us.

And, just like Bunny, when I practice loving and accepting myself and receiving love from others, I become a little less judgy.

If you have a little judgy bunny in you, loving acceptance will hopefully help you, too—and that’s the real deal.