Posts by Michele Chynoweth

Easter Sunday, the pinnacle of the Church’s calendar year, is a day filled with joy.  The Monday after? Perhaps not so much. It’s back to work, back to “normal,” and this year for many people living in the Northeast, still cold and winter-like. So how do we sustain the joy we have experienced as the…

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the start of what Christians call “Holy Week,” or the week ahead leading up to Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. I feel bummed that already I didn’t start off very well…I worked yesterday (yes, after my whole commitment to try NOT to work on Sundays!) to follow up…

I won a Toastmasters speech contest yesterday…it was the second round of contests on a journey to get to the Toastmasters International Speech Contest held annually to choose the “World Champion Public Speaker.” I felt good about my speech…I have had it in my head for months, on paper for weeks and practiced it for…

I was hacked today on one of my social media accounts (Linked IN) and I couldn’t get back into my account, as if someone had stolen it – not to mention sent messages to people I know that I was trying to get them to buy into some make believe investment scheme. I guess I’ve…

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a workaholic. Always have been. Not really proud of it. When I’m not at work in my marketing job, I’m at work on my author/speaker/book coaching career…writing, reading and editing other people’s writing, marketing my own work and that of others, speaking, looking for speaking opportunities, following up with the…

Some things are truly out of our control…like when someone you love is mad at you and gives you the silent treatment and refuses to speak with you and you have no idea how or why you made that person hurt or angry and/or know there’s nothing you can do to fix the situation…and yet…

Every year at this time I get a twinge of angst that I know I need to prepare for Easter during the next 40 days of Lent, coupled with a feeling or fear that I probably won’t end up feeling spiritually prepared when Easter Sunday arrives. I know this is projecting and if anything I’ve…

I’m sure all of you have had bad endings happen to what should have been happy occasions…like when you have a celebration or gathering of friends or family and toward the end of the event, someone says or does something that makes you mad or hurts your feelings. I think it’s our human nature to…

No one knew more loss and suffering than Job in the Bible. I don’t know why God called me to write a modern-day novel based on the Book of Job other than that I felt like I was in the depths of despair at that point in my life – and, like Job says, life…

Finally far enough away from the Christmas frenzy where I second guessed myself several times on what gifts I had gotten, removed from the failed attempts to fulfill New Year’s resolutions of losing weight and working out more (hard to do when you’re sick on the couch) and on my way out of the winter…