Candace Echols is a Midtown resident, wife, and mother of five. A regular contributor to The Daily Memphian, she is a freelance writer who also recently published her first book, the children’s book “Josephine and the Quarantine.”
There are 99 articles by Candace Echols :
“Grieve with your brokenhearted friends. Grieve the war their people are involved in. Grieve the evil (it’s important that we call it what it is – evil – when human beings are slaughtered) and violence towards the innocent people.”
“We sometimes talk through the nuances of our mid-life femaleness with a candid honesty that I would call uncommon. ... We share stories about our aunts and mothers, our sisters and grandmothers.”
“But coffee and relationships and creativity — these are the gifts of slow living. These are the places in which we are called to fully inhabit our fleshliness.”
“When my friend hoists me out of the dumps by pointing out my many blessings, what she’s really doing is pointing me to the Giver of all good gifts. She’s reminding me that I came into this world empty-handed and I will leave the same way.”
“In Memphis, there is so much that’s hard to hear. But this —this is something really, really good that’s happening in our city.”
“Every person brings more to a disagreement than the rest of us will ever know. While my creamed corn debacle is a far cry from a presidential election in importance, what’s behind it is similar.”
“For a decent shot at victory, the team needs to be whole. ... Perhaps the entire city of Memphis could use a dose of this lesson right now.”
“All those years ago, I thought I was ministering to the people in the seats with my smile and my soprano song. But I’m the one who walked away with the secret treasure.”
“I have asked some fellow lifelong Memphians who know all about the big city/small town nature of our home to share memories from the Christmases of their earliest years.”
“I wonder if there is some unspoken desire to shed things like bills and emails and jobs and smart phones and instead become a child alongside our children, all a mess together with bed-heads and pj’s and sock feet, no matter how polished or professional we are in our adult life.”
“There are portals to God’s grace all over this city, both in nature and in civilization.”
“Thursday was extreme. In one day, I found myself flying all over the spectrum of comparison.”
“All these years, we have been living parallel lives. I drive down the middle lane while he bikes on the sidewalk.”
“Hair is something most of us have to deal with on a daily basis just to step out the front door. And lately I’ve been having to think about my hair more.”
“Sometimes — especially here in late February — we must do what we can to invite the natural world in, allowing it to carry us until spring arrives.”
“When a gaggle of kids come in my kitchen door covered in dirt — all red-cheeked and sweaty — cackling and out-of-breath because of some prank they played or game they made up, nothing makes me happier.”
“Why does it feed my soul to gaze across the landscape of Shelby Farms and inhale a whole wide world of greens and blues?”
You don’t have to go far to get away from it all. Candace Echols has some ideas for where you can go to catch your breath amid your hectic schedule.
“When you get to be an adult, laughter can feel like an add-on like whipped cream, a free mint or pressing snooze on the alarm clock.”
“Macsovits has taken what she’s been taught in the course of a lifetime, married it with the deeper and broader perspective she has earned in motherhood, and is now passing it on to others.” Echols: Stories of hope, joy, learning: It’s always a party at one special Memphis school Echols: Stories of hope, joy, learning: Everett beats the oddsRelated content:
“We all know anytime there are gifts being opened, anytime there’s ice cream and field trips and dress up and games, anytime someone is empowered to do something they could not do before, there’s a party going on.”
“Every year on June 21, my brother Landon Williams sends me some version of the same text message ... ‘Hey Sister! Today is the 6-year anniversary of the day when Everett was supposed to die.’”
“What started with truth, goodness and beauty has fallen into dissonance. That’s what I hear in the news, gunfire, sirens and gossip. ... I’ve heard the dissonance in the sound of my own complaining voice.”
“We were proud to be Memphians for a great many reasons, but underneath them all was a sense of citywide unity. For once, we were all on the same team.”
“Then you find yourself legitimately considering letting someone slice open your rear to insert a TicTac made of yams that will get you closer to ‘normal,’ whatever that even means.”