I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Life

  • yesterday when I was young – yeah, but now that I’m old, what’s next?

    yesterday when I was young – yeah, but now that I’m old, what’s next?


    Yesterday, when I was young the taste of life was sweet like rain upon my tongue. I teased at life as if it were a foolish game the way an evening breeze would tease a candle flame. The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned, I always built to last on weak and shifting sand. I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day and only now I see how the years have run away. Yesterday, when I was young there were so many songs that waited to be sung. So many wild pleasures that lay in store for me and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see. I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out. I never stopped to think what life was all about and every conversation that I can recall concerns itself with me and nothing else at all. Yesterday the moon was blue, and every crazy day brought something new to do. And I used my magic age as if it were a wand, I never saw the waste and emptiness beyond. The game of love I played with arrogance and pride, and every flame I lit, so quickly, quickly died The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away, and only I am left on stage to end the play.Yesterday, when I was young there were so many songs that waited to be sung. So many wild pleasures that lay in store for me, and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see. There are so many songs in me that won’t be sung ’cause I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue. And the time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young

    (Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Herbert Kretzmer / Charles Aznavour)

    Unlike the lyrics in this song, I do stop to think what life was all about, a personal luxury as the general life expectancy age for women in the United States is 79 years which will be my age in five weeks. I can identify with these reflections, with their universal themes of how the years run away, the wild pleasures mixed in with the dazzling pain, teasing at life, dreams that won’t ever be realized – all compressed into memory makers. Every day I am reminded that my age is a gift, unmerited favor, grace that should be celebrated.

    The closer I get to a birthday, the more I care about life expectancy and the extra rabbit holes I go down with my Googling. There are more rabbit holes in a Google search than there are Jackrabbits in West Texas. The good news is if I can last just five more weeks until my 79th. birthday on April 21st., my average life expectancy is 9.5 years or I will live until I am 88.5 years old. Sigh. Apparently I need to be extra careful, though. Try not to fall, avoid fatty foods, tell Pretty how much I love her every night, and mostly be a kinder person to my family and friends.

    Fun fact in one rabbit hole: short people outlive tall ones. Good grief. Finally, a benefit of my body type.

  • When We’re Gone, Long Gone

    When We’re Gone, Long Gone


    three women of song who will be remembered long after they’re gone

    Trouble, we have known trouble
    In our struggle just to get by
    Many times the burden’s been heavy
    Still we carried on side by side
    And when we’re gone, long gone
    The only thing that will have mattered
    Is the love that we shared
    And the way that we cared
    When we’re gone, long gone
    And when we’re walking together in glory
    Hand in hand through eternity
    It’s the love that will be remembered
    Not wealth, not poverty
    And when we’re gone, long gone
    The only thing that will have mattered
    Is the love that we’ve shared
    And the way that we cared
    When we’re gone, long gone
    When we’re gone, long gone
    The only thing that will have mattered
    Is the love that we shared
    And the way that we cared
    When we’re gone, long gone

    Source: Musixmatch

    Songwriters: Kieran Kane / Jamie O’hara

    ********************

    Slava Ukraini.

  • Nana, did you marry Naynay?

    Nana, did you marry Naynay?


    five-year-old Ella, three-year-old Molly, and Naynay at Krispy Kreme Store

    Nana and Ella love Krispy Kreme donuts

    Molly doesn’t like donuts (according to her)

    Hmm. Maybe Molly needs to reconsider her position on donuts.

    I’m trying to figure out how to eat the icing first

    is there anything more delicious than a donut?

    Yes! It’s a donut with M&M candy in the icing!

    Such an adventure with our two granddaughters who have grown up with Krispy Kreme donuts but always in a drive-thru setting – never actually going inside a store where the donuts are made. Heavenly aromas as we opened the door to the store and feasts for the eyes that opened wide to see the dozens of varieties in spotless display cases as hundreds of donuts moved through an assembly line in full view behind the cases. The girls were mesmerized and a bit overwhelmed by the choices when we limited them to two each but thrilled to sit at a little table with their milk to experiment with unusual tastes and colors. Finally, a race to the restroom to wash hands and faces when we had to take them to their parents.

    As Nana leaned into the middle row of the grannymobile to buckle Ella in her car seat when we were leaving the Krispy Kreme store, Ella asked out of the blue: Nana, did you marry Naynay? Nana said yes, I did. I was sitting next to Ella who then turned to me and asked the question Naynay, did you marry Nana? I answered yes, I married Nana.

    But you’re both girls, Ella continued, and I nodded yes to her. But that’s okay, I said. Without skipping a beat as the wheels turned in her five-year-old brain she said, Owen had two moms. Owen was a little boy in her first daycare for two years. He did, indeed, have two moms we met when we picked Ella up in the afternoons.

    Yes, I said. We are two of your grandmothers like Owen’s two mothers.

    And that was that. No more questions. No long discussions – they would come later, but for now everything was fine in her mind.

    When could we come back to Krispy Kreme??

    **********************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • three years of the war in Ukraine and our long term memory loss

    three years of the war in Ukraine and our long term memory loss


    Three years ago today, February 24, 2022, Russia without provocation invaded Ukraine. I know it – you know it. On March 16, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of the United States Congress to ask for America’s help, and I published this piece on that day.

    In listening to an emotional virtual appeal by Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy to the Congress of the United States this morning, I felt the despair of this leader who had watched his beautiful country together with many numbers of its men, women and children obliterated by an evil neighbor for reasons known only to that neighboring country’s president and his supporters.

    If President Zelenskyy could sing, and I don’t know whether he can, he could have closed with some of the words and music of “I Look to You,” singing along with the American gospel group Selah from their album Hope of the Broken World:

    “As I lay me down, heaven hear me now. Winter storms have come and darkened my sun. After all that I’ve been through, who on earth can I turn to? I look to you, I look to you. After all my strength is gone, in you I can be strong. I look to you.
    And when melodies are gone, in you I hear a song. I look to you.

    I don’t know if I’m gonna make it. Nothing to do but lift my head. My levees are broken, my walls have come crumbling down on me. The rain is falling, defeat is calling, I need you to set me free. Take me far away from the battle – I need you to shine on me.”

    The people of Ukraine are looking to us and our Allies around the globe for help to stop not only the physical crumbling walls but also the assault on our vision of freedom and our democratic way of life. Make no mistake, as President Zelenskyy has consistently reminded us, the destruction of Ukraine is but the beginning of a world war against securing the blessings of individual liberty for all people and for their posterity.

    I have a dream, Zelenskyy said to the Congress today, but I also have a need to reclaim the skies over Ukraine, to stop the senseless bombing of my citizens and our homes. The Ukrainian President is looking to us.

    Yes. We see you, we hear you, we feel your pain. We will respond with gratitude for your fight against a common enemy to serve a greater good.

    Photo by Katie Godowski on Pexels.com

    **************************

    We Americans suffer from long term memory loss – the lessons we painfully absorbed about world wars, global conflicts, political corruption, identifying our enemies, supporting our friends – all 20th. century instructional tools we have conveniently forgotten in this 21st. century have now come home to roost in a new administration that seeks to say No to the needs of our Allies and Yes to the demands of our enemies. Shame on our leaders, shame on us for electing them.

    Photo by Eugenia Sol on Pexels.com

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • I ain’t missing you, am I? Yep

    I ain’t missing you, am I? Yep


    From gospel singers Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson to Motown’s Diana Ross and the Supremes of the 20th. century to Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce who light up the 21st. century with their musical magic, I have always loved to hear talented Black artists sing. I have one particular favorite from both centuries, and her name is Tina Turner. I celebrate her memory for her contributions to Black history in this special month.

    Every time I think of you
    I always catch my breath
    And I’m still standing here, and you’re miles away
    And I’m wondering why you left
    And there’s a storm that’s raging
    Through my frozen heart tonight
    I hear your name in certain circles
    And it always makes me smile
    I spend my time thinking about you
    And it’s almost driving me wild
    And there’s a heart that’s breaking

    Down this long distance line tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you

    No matter what I might say
    There’s a message in the wire
    And I’m sending you the signal tonight
    You don’t know how desperate I’ve become
    And it looks like I’m losing this fight
    In your world I have no meaning
    Though I’m tryin’ hard to understand
    And it’s my heart that’s breaking

    Down this long distance line tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you

    No matter what my friends say
    And there’s a message that I’m sending out
    Via telegraph to your soul
    And if I can’t bridge this distance

    Stop this heartbreak overload
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Since you’ve been gone away
    I ain’t missing you
    No matter what my friends say
    I ain’t missing you, I ain’t missing you

    I can’t lie to myself
    And there’s a storm that’s raging
    Through my frozen heart tonight
    I ain’t missing you at all
    Every time I think of you
    I always catch my breath

    These lyrics written in 1984 by John Waite became a #1 hit on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks, then covered by other artists through the years until it reached Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams album and tour in 1996 where it found a home in the hearts of millions of Turner’s fans – including mine.

    From the Spring Hills Baptist Church choir in Nutbush, Tennessee as a child of the late 1940s to concert halls around the globe that set ticketed attendance records including her largest venue with more than 180,000 fans in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1988 Turner entertained and amazed millions of people for nearly six decades with her raspy voice, high energy, sexy self. Her ability to overcome, to survive and thrive in a man’s music world were an inspiration to everyone that knew her story.

    Thank goodness for YouTube videos of Tina Turner who has often been referred to as the Queen of Rock and Roll – I watched my favorite, the Amsterdam concert, through tears when I heard she had left the building permanently two years ago in 2023.

    Every time I think of you, I always catch my breath…sometimes it’s hard to let go, but it’s okay to still miss you.