Afternoon tea with Mr. Vincent van Gogh
Watch for a story about the health benefits of tea. Each tea has a story coming from the fields with love.
Copyright (c)2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Tea with Mr. Vincent van Gogh
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June newsletter
Hello to all,
Emma Blogs June newsletter is out now. Read about what’s coming up. You can sign up right here.
Pictured on the featured photo is Saint Patrick Festival coming up from June 26 through June 28 with famous chicken dinners on Sunday June 28th from noon until five. The cost is $9 for adults and $4 for children under four. The festival kicks off with a 5K run, a beer tent and Conklin Ceili Band on Friday, June 26th.
It also features a helicopter ball drop, festival auction, Las Vegas tent, a classic car show and a polka band, The Diddle Styx.
Copyright (c) 2015. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Writer’s Digest competition
Writer’s Digest competition deadline is coming up
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI -June 5th is the deadline for the major annual Writer’s Digest contest. I am entering this year with the following pieces in two different categories. The first one is non-fiction article that deeply touched me, “Hiker Babe walks in memory of daughter.”
This article is about a woman whom I have known for a long time. Her name is Gail Lowe. Lowe is a retired nurse, who has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice and most recently the North Country Trail in memory of her daughter Becka.
Lowe’s only fear remains that she won’t be able to hike anymore because of aging. Becka’s fear before she passed from breast cancer was not to be forgotten. So, her mother immortalized her with the 4,600-mile long hike through seven Midwest states. She got sick on the trail and turned 65.
The second piece I am submitting is fiction based in reality, “Twice into the same river.”
There is a saying that you cannot step twice into the same river, meaning that everything flows with time.
Well, I have. First, in the late eighties when I took care of my grandparents until their death. Then, I left Czech Republic for the USA.
Now, I am facing the same destiny with my brother who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. He can and cannot take care of himself. He refuses to take medication and is very angry most of the time.
I fear that I am not going to be able to handle him. The unknown ahead is so overwhelming that’s why I am writing about it to ease the burden.
I will be stepping twice into the same river, only some 25 years later.
Copyright © 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Memorial Day 2015
Memorial Day brings in tears & rain
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI – Under the gloomy skies Monday, the people of Lowell honored the 629 veterans who found their final resting place at the Oakwood Cemetery.
Groomed to the nines by Don DeYong and the crew, the lovely cemetery whispered its own stories of 151 Civil War veterans. The Boy Scouts marked each veteran’s grave with a star and a flag.
Emotional Dave Thompson was the featured speaker for the ceremony located by a monument to the unknown soldier.
“I like to think the rain are tears,” he said. “This is the first time in many years it is like this.”
Thompson introduced the beautiful strings band of Wendy Tinney. As the violins played their sad tunes and rain sprinkled, many people were wiping off tears from their faces.
The only two remaining veterans from WW II laid flowers to the monument, much like representatives from the local organizations.
The flags were flying half staff in the wind that was blowing from the south.
“We have 29 new veterans here at the cemetery,” said tearful Thompson.
Mayor Jim Hodges also laid flowers to the monument.
Even though it started to rain heavily, people stood there in the rain under the umbrellas listening to Thompson hauntingly name the deceased veterans followed by a bell ring for each.
We thank you all veterans for our freedoms and your sacrifices.
Copyright (c) 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Czech calendar names for boys
Czech calendar names for boys
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI- I’ve been writing about the Czech female names in the family like Anna, Mary, Martha & Eliska.
Today, I am going to write about the male names in the family. First of all the big ones of course, Joseph. I wouldn’t be able to count how many Josephs we have had in the family. The name day falls on March 19, and it has a flavor of a national holiday.
According to astrologists, the name is a traditional one full of courage, showmanship and personality.
“I want to show the world who I am and that I am here,” say Josephs.
Every Joe likes his beer and gossip in restaurant more than talk in a confession booth. Josephs have bigger personalities than this world, and they are good partners for the right zodiac sign.
Very true, my grandpa Joseph used to like to show off at any and every occasion. I always thought he should have been an actor.
Other old classic is Franta or Frank. We had a lot of those too in the family. It too is a traditional old Czech name that has never grown old. It carries eternal karma with it. We call our men named Frank with love. However, the planet Mercury causes problems, behavioral and health, even though Franks are adaptable to bad luck and destiny.
Later in life they harden inside and grow increasingly sad.
“This name does not bring much good in family life,” according to astrolife.cz and Healing Stars. “The old age comes with crankiness.”
Forty is especially bad for Franks. The astrologist does not recommend this name because of its inner anxiety. The only things that can set Franks free are altruism and love for the nature. It is only recommended in Pisces. The name day for Franks is on Oct. 4.
I do have to attest that all the above facts are true. I had an uncle Frank, and he was a one unhappy soul. He was a train conductor, and later he got divorced.
My other uncle and paternal grandpa had the honest Czech name Anthony. They are good family men with ordinary life without any big ups and downs. It’s appropriate for all zodiac signs, according to astrolife.cz
The name day for Anthony is on July 13.
Another name from this great classy suite is Vaclav. Both my dad and my brother have this great royal name.
Vaclav is intelligent, loves to learn, he loves his family. However, there is some karmic burden in the traditional Czech name that is not too optimistic for normal life. This karma disappears in work for others and in sacrifice.
If Vaclav is a materialist and selfish, this karma works against him causing him to be unhappy with himself. The name day for Vaclav is on Sept. 28.
I do want to mention my cousin’s name Bronislav. The name literally puts brakes on any luck in life. Around 40 it worsens even if there is a good combination with the last name and the date of birth.
“This person gets only minimum luck through parents or partner,” says the astrologist. “The Damocles sword is constantly above his head. I do not recommend this name.”
The name day for Bronislav is on Sept. 3.
More on modern names next time. These will include Jakub, Ludek, Pavel, George and Olin.
Sources: www.astrolife.cz
Healing Stars
Copyright © 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
My Columbines
Columbines bring life to spring gardens
I love these fragile flowers that don’t last too long but bring so much life and spirit to spring gardens.
Copyright (c) 2015. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing in beautiful southern France with more than 250,000 industry professionals from all over the world.
Don’t miss out on it.
Copyright (c) 2015. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Mother’s Day
Two sisters and mothers still at war
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Writer’s note:
This is part of the 200 Posts & beyond series
Today is a big day. As I write to the morning chirping of the birds, I still have my feet wet from watering the flowers for my mother, for Mother’s Day.
My dog Haryk passed in September of last year. So, I don’t have him anymore. It’s bizarre how many things have changed in one year. I’ve made a lot of posts since April of last year. I had around 100 posts, now I am close to 300 posts.
Mistakes. Yes, tons of them. Success, too. I’ve established my company Emma Blogs, LLC in August of last year. I got my eyes fixed with Dr. Verdier.
It’s May 9th, it’s my birthday. I was born on the national holiday in former Czechoslovakia. On that day, the nation’s capital Prague, the mother of all cities, was freed from the Nazi occupation by the Soviet Army. That was the end of World War II.
Many years later, I was born in the wee hours at 4 a.m. to parents Ella & Vaclav Konecny. My mom woke up to the cracking noises of fireworks announcing the anniversary of the victory.
“I thought it was war again, but then I realized those were fireworks celebrating your birth,” she said to me this morning as she wished me a happy birthday. “The whole nation celebrated.”
Mom says that to me every year, as the nature too celebrates the awakening after long winter.
“The nature blossoms on your birthday,” she says. “You always had the day off and a parade.”
The above note is one of the many reasons why I dedicated the memoir “Greenwich Meridian where East meets west” to my mother.
200 Posts & beyond
This post is inspired by Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” and the constant friction that I have witnessed between sisters in this world.
Mom Ella and aunt Anna
As I watch people drop like flies around me, I realize how time is going by fast. I like the inscription on the clock in the living room, “Tempus fugit.” That’s why I bought that pendulum clock as one of the first things when I arrived on this continent in 1989 for $110. Not that I had that kind of money. I just wanted the clock so bad, that I probably borrowed money for it. It announces the time by boldly striking every full and half hour. My husband Ludek still has to wind it by hand much like the clock that the in-laws had at home in the old country.
“They probably wouldn’t even let us know if Anna’s dead,” mom said about her sister.
Well, I think she is right. There is probably no one left to let us know. That’s all part of the emigration package that I am writing about in the memoir “Greenwich Meridian.”
To be continued as part of the ongoing series 200 Posts & beyond
Copyright © 2015 story and photos by Emma Palova
Featured blogger
Featured blogger Rob Goldenstein
Note: I decided to feature WordPress blogger Rob Goldenstein, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, because May is the mental health month. As always before I write about somebody, I study their work, whether it’s an artist or an entrepreneur.
Longtime blogger deals with alternates of the dissociate identity disorder to express himself
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI- I do not know Rob Goldenstein personally only from an interview over Skype and from studying his extensive work. Goldenstein mentions that quite often he cannot relate to his own writing, and that it has been written by an alternate.
Few themes keep emerging in Goldenstein’s blogs both on Flicker and on WordPress.
“The alternates describe the blog is an extension of second life,” he said. “I have all these different avatars.”
In his About page, Goldenstein writes about his passion for right of full access to health care for people with mental illness.
“By full access I mean access to all treatment modes regardless the prevailing myth of scarcity,” he stated. “In the About me, I express my intentions as they evolve as I continue to blog.”
Goldenstein has been blogging on Flicker since January 2010, and he has posted some 2,179 photos.
In his Inside Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) page Goldenstein outlines his goals as to organize what he knows about himself in a single place.
“It is where I can see it while interacting with other people,” he said.
His therapist told Goldenstein that he didn’t get sick in isolation, and that he is not going to get well in isolation.
One of Goldenstein’s goals is to let the alternates like Sara or Peter tell their stories.
“It is the only way that I can think of to set myself free,” he stated. The writing of this blog is only literary to the extent that I bring to it certain literary sensibility acquired from the study of poetry, literature, and film.”
The alternates, according to Goldenstein, use different styles in the way they write, but they share a certain tone of voice.
“That singularity of voice is my true self,” he stated. “I do my best to keep up with the people in my network, but my best is a bit slow now.”
Goldstein is thankful to other bloggers like Andy Weisskoff, LCSW, whose blog, 90 Days to Change, helped to understand the political aspect being a person with dissociative identity disorder.
The little I know about dissociative identity disorder is that it happens as a defensive reaction when overwhelmed, typically starting in childhood under extreme cases of abuse, and then gets triggered when situations in the present seem like dangerous situations in the past.
As far as what the government might do about treating mental illness, I’ve gotten very specific on my blog. The federal agencies that oversee medicare and medicaid dollars could audit Kaiser mental health services to ensure that basic services are being provided.
Kaiser is the largest provider of mental health services in California and so it is a very good place to start holding physicians’ groups accountable for providing the same level of service for people with mental illness as they do for people with other types of illness.
Psychology professor at Cornerstone University Daniel Ehnis said about the mental illness:
“In my opinion, the reason that DID is so misunderstood is that
it is often confused with Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality. Others think that
the symptoms can be faked. DID is a creative way to prevent repressed feelings from surfacing.
As a result, this creativity shows up in various ways.”
Copyright (c) 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
May Day in Czech Republic
May Day brings romance & opens beer gardens
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
May Day is not only known for the International Worker’s Day to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, but it is also a Northern Hemisphere spring festival.
It was an official holiday in former Czechoslovakia, complete with parades. But, most importantly, it was and it is a celebration of spring called Majales accompanied by the opening of the beer gardens. Majales are dances around May poles decorated with ribbons.
The first day of May is known as the day of love immortalized by many artists, poets and writers. It was mainly the work of Czech poet Karel Hynek Macha who attached love to this day and the entire month with his poem May.
Here are the first few verses from the poem translated by Edith Pargeter:
Late evening, on the first of May—
The twilit May—the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses frail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose’s fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven’s clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.
A haze of stars in heaven hovers—
That church of endless love’s communion—
Each jewel blanches and recovers
As blanch and burn long-parted lovers
In the high rapture of reunion.
How clear, to her full beauty grown,
How pale, how clear, the moon above,
Like maiden seeking for her love,
A rosy halo round her thrown!
Her mirrored image she espied,
And of self-love, beholding, died.
Forth from the farms pale shadows strayed,
Lengthening longing to their kind,
Till they embraced, and close entwined,
Coiled low into the lap of shade,
Grown all one twilight unity.
Tree in the shadows writhes to tree.
In the far mountains’ dark confine
Pine leans to birch and birch to pine.
Wave baunting wave the streamlets move.
For love’s sake—in the time of love—
Anguished goes every living thing.
The poem takes place by Doksy and the castles of Bezdez, Pernstejn, Holska and Ralsko point toward east and west, noon and midnight.
Czech parks and castles invite to romance many designed in classical English style with strict hedges and groves.
Typical flowers for May are lilacs. Some have grown into trees and have been cross-bred into different colors. Some Czech customs have carried over to the USA. In the photo below, Americans of Czech heritage are dancing around a May pole easily recognized by the ribbons.
Copyright (c) 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
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