Emma Palova, born in Czech Republic, is an author, a writer, a screenwriter, a journalist, a photographer, a designer and the founder of Emma Blogs, LLC, based in Lowell, Michigan.
Currently, she is working on her memoir "Greenwich Meridian" which she intends to turn into a screenplay.
Palova started her blog EW Emma's Writings at http://emmaplova.com in support of the publication of her memoir in January, 2013.
The blog has grown into a passion and a company that designs blogs for other people under the umbrella of Emma Blogs.
Palova is a prolific online publisher open to new ideas and to new horizons. A natural innovator, Palova loves to create progressive brands into the future. Check out her inspirational post "Desert epiphany" and the authors page on About_me and on Facebook.
I am looking forward to seeing you around the greater Grand Rapids area and on my blog.
I am seeking an agent or a publisher for the memoir that I intend to publish for my mom Ella's 80 birthday on Aug. 23.
I celebrated my fourth anniversary on the WordPress publishing platform on Jan. 15th, 2017 with more than 1,000 followers and 500 plus posts.
Love always,
Emma
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.
Mission accomplished
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.
Brother and sister in Reed City, a theme for a short story.
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.
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.
Memorial Day 2015
“I like to think the rain are tears,” he said. “This is the first time in many years it is like this.”
Oakwood Cemetery
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 strings band.
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.
Memorial Day 2015
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.
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.
Czech calendar names for boys
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.
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.”
Czech Capital Prague
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.”
Birthday blossom
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 & I
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
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.
Featured blogger Rob Goldenstein
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.”
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.
May Day pole tied with ribbons signifies love and spring.
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.
Karel Hynek Macha, Czech poet
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.
Castle Pernstejn the setting for the poem May.
Czech parks and castles invite to romance many designed in classical English style with strict hedges and groves.
A castle park in Vizovice where a big part of my book takes place.
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.
Abstract art by Kathleen Mooney inspired by quilting.
I love abstract art. You can do anything you want with it. Watch for a feature story for May, which is a mental health month. The featured blogger will be Robert Goldenstein.
I am very excited. I will be featuring fellow blogger Rob Goldenstein in my Emma Blogs May newsletter and a full feature story in May. An abstract by Rob Goldenstein titled, Mr. Anguish.
Rob Goldenstein’s abstract.
May is the mental health month. I’ve often reported on mental health issues for the print media, and as such I have received the Jim Neubacher award for reporting without bias.
I have no bias. I have a brother Vaclav Konecny who is a paranoid schizophrenic and mental health problems run in our family. My uncle took his own life in his early fifties. I often write about mental health issues in my memoir “Greenwich Meridian.”
I think surrealism as an art form fits many mental health disorders. I am naturally attracted to surrealism myself, because I feel it best express the turmoil inside.
Note: I often write about different names in the Czech calendar and in our multi-cultural family. In the memoir “Greenwich Meridian” I write about the people behind the names. Recently, I found out that each name has certain characteristics that may be a perfect fit or a perfect misfit. This is a second part of a mini-series about calendar names. The first part ran on April 10. Look for the greeting card logo. I focused on female names first.
Another name in the family is Julie. That was my late mother-in-law. I have very fond memories of her. Julie lived to be 92 years old, she was up and running until the very last minute when she passed away peacefully in her nap. She took care of our daughter Emma, while I was studying at the Technical University of Brno.
The name has bold characteristics. According to Soul’s Touches, Julie is a dragoness, who is both sensitive and attractive. She takes deep interest in men into late years, caused by the vibrations of Mars. When she falls in love, she tears down bridges, and rebuilds them again. But, most of all she’s a woman. As a mother, she can be both loving and strict. The name is right for all zodiac signs except for Scorpio. Julie celebrates her name day on Dec. 10.
Mother-in-law Julie Palova was very beautiful.
Anna, was my grandmother and her daughter Anna is my aunt and godmother. The characteristics for the name are: a true woman, loving, devoted, but living her life through others. It is a troubled life of labor & worries, a constant circle of obligations and feelings of being in debt to all. Anna is foremost a mother and a wife.
The astrologist does not recommend this name, because it carries the premonition of a hard life. Anna celebrates her name day on July 26 in the Czech calendar.
Martha is the name of my paternal aunt, as well as first and second cousin’s names. According to Soul’s Touches, the name carries traits of satisfaction. Even though Marthas do not reach the most coveted goals, they end up usually married. Martha is foremost a woman. She matures emotionally later in life, quite often divorces. Not recommended in Gemini, Libra and in Capricorn. Her name day is on July 29.
Mary is my mother’s cousin name, and we probably had a lot more Marys in the family.
Mary is a universal name used in all languages. She is motherly, devoted and hardworking.
The traits: always willing to learn, intelligent, sensitive and strict. Only a bad coordinate with the last name and birth date can worsen her life’s path, according to Soul’s Touches.
The feast of Saint Mary falls on Sept. 12 and it is celebrated around the world with festivities and pilgrimages to sacred places like Hostyn, in Moravia.
Lenka is the name of my second cousin, the daughter of Mary. The name has bad karmic vibrations. Lenkas do not have an easy life or a happy life. There are only a few exceptions depending on the birth date and coordinate with the last name. The biggest problem can be in relationships. The astrologist writes, “When a relationship ends and Lenka asks why?” I answer “Because you have bad vibrations. I would recommend to shorten the name to Lena at the birth registry.”
The name is influenced by Mars, Sun, Venus and Saturn. The Saturn negatively impacts Venus. That’s where the bad karma comes from.
I covered only a few female names in the family, and a fraction of female names in the Czech calendar. From time to time, I will be coming back to this subject, because it fascinates me. Most descriptions fit like a glove depending on the zodiac sign, and sometimes on the last name.
Trending names in Czech are: Tereza, Natalie, Anna, Adela, Eliska, Karolina, Katerina, Barbora, Lucie, Kristina, Michaela, Nikola and Veronika.
Next week I’ll write about the characteristics of male names in the family.
See you then. Hope you find your name a great fit.
Sources: “Soul’s Touches” and “Greenwich Meridian”
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