I took an Astrid Lindgren quiz today and ended up – not surprisingly – as Pippi Longstocking… a great honour to resemble my greatest childhood heroine (still is…)!
(Illustration of point: Me participating enthusiastically in a Maasai Wedding dance in my local community wearing my beloved overbleached, cutoff-sleeved kanga dress that I made myself. I am not entirely sure I had bothered to put on shoes that day… Needless to sayI had Great Fun;)
Later today I stumbeled upon this lovely poem that kind of embrace a lot of the things I believe in… and somehow seem to live by… and I always have a LOT of fun in my life when I embrace its principles. Hmmm. Did it stumble itself into my path for me to share, I wonder? Anyhow, I want to share it here. For the fun of it. Enjoy! And Please Please Please Be Inspired! The World need NEED more women – and men!! – to bring out their Inner Pippis into the World for it and you! to shine just a little bit (or a LOT) brighter!
Love, Mariane
Warning
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Jenny Joseph
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