There are 98 article(s) tagged Candace Echols:
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When you think about it, there are an endless number of ways people write their stories on their skin.”
“If you stop to look around, the walls of our world are plastered with bulb-lit-arrows all over the place. And they are all pointing to something beyond. Something grander. Something far better and far worse than what usually enters our mind as we’re ordering our combos and swiping our cards and deciding between Diet Coke or Coke Zero. “
“How many of our systemic problems could be impacted — not solved, mind you, just lightly impacted — if we connected a little better with those who live close by?”
“How do I write openly about the God I worship even as I do not understand why he is allowing such painful things to take place in our city?”
“Not all Mississippians have gotten it right throughout history, and that’s easy to see. But what we can learn from the natives who speak rightly is how to convey difficult ideas with gentleness.”
“Young people need people who have a different perspective not only in race or gender or socioeconomic status, but in age.”
“People in our city are considering a lot right now. We are thinking through family histories that are long, friendships that are time-tested, and roots that run deep. “
“Our people are gold. They’re not the type you just walk out on. ... The everyday folks that make up Memphis are awesome.”
“Perhaps they grew up going to church, but it felt dull. Perhaps they went to Christian school, but didn’t click with their classmates. Perhaps they had a sibling or a friend or a mother who prayed for them, but it never really took.”
“There are seasons when darkness snuffs out creativity. But every time we make something new and beautiful — something life-giving and delightful — we push back on all that darkness.”
“You don’t have to live long to realize life on this earth is decidedly short. Eternity, on the other hand, is just that: eternal.”
“We would head back to Busch Stadium and find our spot on the fold-down, red plastic chairs — the ones you would have to peel the backs of your thighs off of each time you would stand up to cheer. Because it was hot. So, so hot.”
“The Taylor vibe was strong not only on stage but also in the crowd, and it came out in how her fans looked and in how they sang, in how happy they were to be in her presence and in how they were a unified reflection of the one they came to see.”
“That small smile created a bridge and invited me to walk across — if only by smiling back. As a society, we are fractured in a million jagged ways ... that smile was a step toward reconnection.”
“I’ll admit that the Easter bunny is cute and tons of fun – he swings by our house every year. The eggs are nice. The flowers are a delight. In their own ways, they all point to new life. But there is nothing that compares with celebrating what it means for humanity that Jesus walked out of that tomb.”