Dare to Care – Page 5 – construct, create, communicate, collaborate, and think critically

Slice of Life 11 – Memories of Bahrain and March Madness, Perfume Edition #sol24

10/Mar/202410/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs9 Comments

Before retiring to California in 2022, I lived in Bahrain. When we went there we took nine suitcases. When we came back eight years later, we had nine boxes and suitcases again. I’m guessing the contents of the suitcases had changed by about 80%. We brought home the painted map of Bahrain in the photo below. It hung in my dining room in Bahrain, and it graces our dining room in California now.

Learning to love tea in Bahrain was another joy I brought back to California, along with two tea pots and a dozen small tea cups–some of them gifts from friends. Every Sunday before church, I make myself a pot of tea (Something I used to do every Friday before church in Bahrain.)

Affaf had given me a set of crystal tea cups and saucers, so I told her I was thinking of her. Affaf wished peace to me and my family, thanked me for writing, told me she thought of me and our good friendship. (Of course, Google Translate had to help me read that note.)

Another thing I grew to love in Bahrain was wearing perfume. I had never been much of a perfume wearer, except when I first got married and received a bottle of Lauren, which I wore daily. But living in the Middle East, perfume is a big deal. At the mall, workers stand outside perfume shops and spray samples generously. For Teacher Appreciation Week, I didn’t get coffee mugs but often would receive gifts of perfume and flowers. While I was there, I learned to spray perfume on every day. I left my Bahrain perfume behind, so when I got to California I didn’t have any perfume.

This past December, I added perfume to my Christmas wish list, and Katie and Thomas got me a fun gift from Sephora–a perfume sampler. There are 16 tiny bottles. I’ve been wearing perfume since Christmas.

The best part, though. I get to choose a large bottle of the one I like best.

After awhile, I decided to do a proper tournament. The first round was easy because I had already separated the perfumes into ones I liked and ones that were so-so. I paired them up against each other.

Here is my March Madness, Perfume Edition.

Here are my final four:

I’m having a hard time choosing between the final four. I like them all, so it doesn’t really matter which one I choose! I’ll go to Sephora soon and commit to one.

Slice of Life 10 – Noticing All the Senses #sol24

09/Mar/202410/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs16 Comments

Thanks to Megan’s slice yesterday, “My Five Senses on a Friday” at The Musing Millennial, I spent more time appreciating everything I was sensing today while I was on a bike ride. It’s been awhile since I closed my eyes and listened, but I did that today sitting on a picnic table, so thank you, Megan.

I heard the jet plane miles overhead, and when it was gone it got quiet-quiet, like I could hear the workings in my head. Then a very occasional bee and another occasional fly went by. Next, my husband’s footsteps in the sand told me he was back from watering a tree.

I smell no springtime flora; it may be a little early for that. I did catch a lingering remnant of the Nest fragrance on my wrist, which happens to be in the final four of the perfume brackets (more on that tomorrow). I also smelled the hard caliche when I fell and nearly kissed the earth, while I climbed up to the rock pile.

I see two gallon water bottles tucked under a bush and the skeletal remains of Joshua and juniper trees which were burned in a fire decades ago. I see my husband down below me waiting at the picnic table, while I watched him from the rock pile.

I taste the cool water flowing from my hydration pack, as I suck on the nozzle.

I feel the bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup as I bounce over ridges on the washboard road. When we first started I felt a pain in my left knee, so I cranked up the power to #3 on my e-bike, and enjoyed the electric assistance throughout the uphill climb.

And now as I write, I’m enjoying the bike ride again, thanks to paying attention to the senses that make life interesting.

Thanks
for the
connections
we make to this
adored planet you
have freely graced us with.
The God of the universe
created all sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
and touches–bringing joy to this life.

Slice of Life 9 – A Six-Word Story of Earth #sol24

08/Mar/202409/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs20 Comments

Earth’s fragile ecosystems long for survival.

When I grew up in California, we always had the green season (winter) and the brown season (summer). Fortunately, with the rains of the past two winters, our green season has come back. I took this photo near Hemet on Thursday.

On another note, Leigh Anne wanted to see the inside of the junk journals I made. I took a few photos…

Here are the four junk journals I made for my nieces. I dropped them off at their busy house this week.

Here are a few selected pages and pockets.

Slice of Life 8 – Multilingual Blogger – Ha! #sol24

07/Mar/202408/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs15 Comments

Here is my very dusty “Multilingual Blogger” badge. I haven’t used it since last March.

I wish I was multilingual; I’m still a poser. However, I’m trying, and after three years of studying Spanish on Duolingo, I feel more hopeful than ever before. Now, I’ve set myself a goal to get started this month on something I have been talking about. To meet a Spanish speaker who also wants to become more multilingual by working on their English. I would love to share conversation with them. I’ll update on the last Friday of the month, March 29.

In the meantime, today I’m remembering the Portuguese I learned in Brazil last month with this elfchen. These are the words I said the most during my week there!

Eu
não falo
português, mas eu
gosto disso. Bom dia,
Amigo

I
don’t speak
Portuguese, but I
like this. Good morning,
Friend.

Poetry Friday – Dragons

07/Mar/202408/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs12 Comments

Today is Poetry Friday and Laura Purdie Salas is hosting. Thank you, Laura, and Congratulations on publication of your new sweet Oskar’s Voyage.

This sculpture will be on display this year for the year of the dragon at the Desert Hills Outlet Malls in Cabazon, California.

It was a cold and cloudy day at the mall today. This dragon statue called to me from across the way. I went over to get a good glimpse, and take its picture.

Now I’m sitting here Thursday evening listening to the rain fall on my roof, reading my Lunar New Year postcards again, enjoying each one. Thank you, all who participated.

Dragons

What has happened
to the dragon’s reputation?
When I was a child,
dragons were one dimensional,
storied only to be slain.
It was quaint.
The good guy
slayed the dragon
and saved the princess.

Now, the world
has far too many dragons
that need slaying,
so princesses
and good guys alike
have a little dragon blood
in their veins
to set the world on fire
with hope and humanity.

Slice of Life 7 – True or False #sol24

06/Mar/202406/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs12 Comments

I ran across this True/False post on Poetry Foundation when I was looking for a poem about jury duty. (Go figure!) Dean Young is a surrealist poet who wrote “True/False” in 2006. His number 5 was “I like jury duty.” That’s the only reason I found this relatively old poem. Then I wrote some of my own. Like Lay’s, I just can’t seem to stop at one or a few…Now, I’m thinking of using it as my prompt for #Verselove in April. What do you think? Is it inviting enough to wonder about the veracity or falsehoods written here?

True/False
After Dean Young

I am much younger inside than I appear outside.
Jury duty is for the birds.
Ishmael is also a son of Abraham.
Guns have no constructive purpose.
The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
I alone can fix it.¹
The day you eat it your eyes will be open.
I don’t need a reason.
The waves are singing a song of thrones.
Time and again, you’ve picked me up.²
MAGA is the GREATEST.MOVEMENT.EVER.
Crocheting is better than knitting.
The fire fixes the folds of the clouds.
Spring is the most glorious season.
The future will be a feckless sucker punch.
That dish is not too hot.
I want to play all the games.
I forgot my suitcase.
How do you know I’m tired?
Civility is not a sign of weakness.³
There is chaos in spilled milk.
If it’s night, the granite glitters.
Diagramming sentences is essential.
Israel wants to make room for Palestine.
Fiction and myth hold the truest truths.
My children are my life.
The tea leaves will tell the story.
Fear is the most debilitating emotion.
You can have too much storage space.
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.⁴
Everything is better with a Snickers bar.
Your ego is a ridiculous tyrant.
Vegetarianism is the tastiest way to eat.
Capitalism is killing our planet.
California should secede.
He’s like a snake lifted in the wilderness.
I have decided to stick with love.⁵
Hate is too great a burden to bear.⁵
I hate writing every day.
The badger is still asleep in its den.
KFC makes the best chicken.
In 1942, hope faltered.
In 1492, Columbus should have stayed home.
In 2942, Jesus may or may not return.
Truth is not false.
We will overcome someday.
You are never too old to play softball.
That tiny silver sliver in the sky is still full.
The computer in my pocket rules the day.
Dean Young was an ordinary poet.

¹Trump
²Obama
³JFK
⁴FDR
⁵MLK, Jr.

Slice of Life 6 – Yoke or Joke? #sol24

05/Mar/202406/Mar/2024 Denise Krebs8 Comments

When I was in São Paulo last month, we went to church one Sunday, and the pastor preached on this passage from Matthew 11, where Jesus says:

28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

We had an interpreter who was really good, and explained everything well without mistake, except for one. Throughout the sermon, the yoke of Jesus became the “joke of Jesus.” It was funny to hear at first. There was no way to explain the mistake to him, and in context we knew what he was saying, so we just got used to it. But in a whole sermon about taking the yoke of Jesus upon us, we heard that word joke a lot. Later at lunch, one of us asked him about the sounds of Y and J in Portuguese words; they wondered if that’s why he got it mixed up, but he didn’t make the connection at first. It wasn’t until later when he realized he had gotten the two words mixed up, he hit his forehead, laughed and said, “That’s why you were asking me about the sounds of the letters!”

Isn’t it a miracle that people learn new languages with so many words, when one letter or sound change can make the words totally different? Language learning is such a marvel. Anyway, I wrote this little #50preciouswords story about a similar mix up with yolk and joke.

A New School
By Denise Krebs

Sara moved from São Paulo last year. I moved from Fresno. She’s learning English. I like her.
“I have a yoke for you,” she tells me today.
“Egg yolk?”
“No, silly. A funny story yoke.”
“Ok. Tell me your joke,” I say.
Sara gives me hope for this new school.

And now some photos of Joshua trees especially for Glenda and all of you: