Posts by Michele Chynoweth

 My husband and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Italy. We signed up for the trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was called “A Taste of Italy” pilgrimage. I had heard about it on “Seize the Day” with Gus Lloyd, a radio show I listen to on Sirius XM, the Catholic Channel.…

It’s summer…well, not officially until a week from now, but it just feels like it…school’s out, the temperatures are hitting the 80’s or 90’s in most places and people are already flocking to pools and beaches. Summer is my favorite season for many reasons. I love swimming outdoors, walking the beach, soaking up the sun,…

Isn’t it funny how, when you meet someone for the first time in an elevator, at the neighborhood pool or in some casual social setting, you both talk for minutes and never find out each other’s names?  This always baffled me! As a former news reporter (and extrovert) I tend to ask a lot of questions and in meeting…

I am one of the biggest dreamers/optimists I know but sometimes that can lead to the pitfall of having high expectations. In 12-step programs you’ll hear “expectations are pre-meditated resentments” and resentments are the number one cause of relapse. The wise William Shakespeake put it another way –  “expectation is the root of all heartache.” So how…

I had been feeling sad and even ashamed this past week to be from Baltimore in the wake of all of the violent criminal backlash to the alleged police brutality in the Freddy Gray case; thugs throwing bricks at cops, burning down buildings, bashing cars, hurting innocent bystanders, forcing 200 innocent businesses to close and much…

Sometimes, especially on Monday mornings, you lose your joy. You have to get up for work again, you have aches and pains, you didn’t sleep well, you got stuck in traffic…but we’re reminded by the lives of the apostles after Jesus died and rose that we need to be “Easter People” (and not just on…

World peace. Something that a beauty queen used to throw out as a pat answer during the Miss America pageant when asked ‘what will you work for if crowned?’ while the rest of us viewers at home would snicker. Something that we still pray for in church – but feel like we’re just saying the words. Something,…

My husband and I were on our way to church for the Good Friday service. As we were stopped at a red light we saw a homeless person up ahead – a young girl, maybe in her twenties – holding a “Homeless, Hungry” cardboard sign. I didn’t notice much about her – she was dressed in a…

I got my feet washed last night at our church’s Holy Thursday mass last night and let me tell you one thing…it was very humbling. It was the first time I ever experienced it. My husband was one of the “volunteers” when he went through the RCIA program four years ago and I remember him…

Ask anyone who knows me and they would tell you I hate house cleaning. I love to cook, I don’t mind grocery shopping and doing laundry. But I despise cleaning. All of a sudden this weekend it hit me: spring cleaning is a lot like Lent (which, I must admit, I haven’t been too diligent about…