Okay, I am over the shootings and the violence. I cannot change anything. By looking at it, I am a part of it. I’ve become a part of the problem, because I am not willing to do anything about it. I’ve become a part of a violent society.
My Alma Mater taught me better. Do something about it.
I led a heated debate at the Parnell General Store about, “What is the purpose of the gun?”
315 posts
We didn’t come to any conclusion. Just like the situation in the Middle East, it has no resolution.
We even had a Rumanian born American Sniper there who said weapons are necessary to kill. He killed his first person when he was 10 years old.
The owner of the store brought out an unloaded shotgun Erica.
You have to respect the weapon.
On the other hand I have a respect to the pen.
I’ve always had that. And I use it on daily basis to give hope to others.
The content challenge that started on Nov. 17 has been marked by consistent violence. I find it bizarre, that at a time when we’re creating content, 2089 pieces of it, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg created a $51 billion foundation for the next generation, other people decided to destroy.
It saddens my heart to see so many people killed. Starting with the attacks in Paris, shooting at the Planned Parenthood Center and now San Bernardino, California.
Google Earth image with sun light.
Even for president Barack Obama, the speeches after shootings have become routine.
Is this the way to live in fear of routine shootings?
We’re living like in the Middle East where you never know if you’re not going to get blown up in a coffee shop. And now people suggest to arm ourselves. On Day #3 I wrote about Fear in the wake of Paris Attacks. The post was about how fear supports consumerism. And here we go again. Buy more arms.
I will never shy away from saying that violence breeds more violence. We have just saw it over the last three weeks.
Violence is not the answer to anything, neither is increased consumerism.
I face violence with more creativity, my own and others. The government should use diplomacy and they shouldn’t be sticking their nose into other country’s business.
Lighting of candles without the candle burning down, Buddha
By Emma Palova
I share happiness and the great human experience through my writing. Sometimes it’s sad, at other times it’s happy. That is life.
Art has always helped me get through difficult times. When I am upset, I turn to art; my own and others.
When my husband Ludek had to leave for a job in Wisconsin, I turned to painting. I painted pictures of koi fish in our pond up there in the garden.
Kathleen Mooney, abstract artist
Most often poetry does the trick. Nicole Varga’s poetry has calmed me down after the upsetting shooting on Dec. 2 at San Bernardino, California.
I also love poetry by the Rumanian poet Valeriu dg Barbu and Emily Dickinson as well as Charles Baudelaire.
There is something calming about art and poetry. Throughout my journalistic career, I met many artists, but one really stands out in my mind. Her name is Kathleen Mooney. She owned a gallery in Lowell. Mooney is a member of the International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA).
After traditional painting, she turned to abstracts.
When I asked her which is more difficult, Mooney answered immediately:
“Abstracts.”
“What inspires you?”
“Symbolism.”
Yes, Mooney finds inspiration in symbols and in words.
I personally think that is incredible. Somehow, all the arts are integrated into one big sphere.
Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Thursday spent with the family in Hastings
Thankful
By Emma Palova
I am thankful for the country I live in. I became a naturalized American in 1999 along with my daughter Emma Palova-Chavent at the Gerald Ford museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I received so many congratulations and the Ionia Sentinel-Standard did a story on me. Kara Hennigan wrote the story. That made me both; the writer of stories and the subject of some of them.
I was born in former Czechoslovakia and I studied engineering at the Technical University of Brno by default and by punishment. We left the country illegally in 1968 just before the Soviet invasion. I wasn’t allowed to study any humanities.
Mom Eliska wanted to go back in 1973. We returned to the homeland and we were punished for doing so.
The book is about our journey back and forth across the Greenwich Meridian.
We left the country again; dad Vaclav in 1976, mom Eliska in 1980 and I left in 1989 after the Velvet Revolution. My husband Ludek left the Czech homeland in 1988 for Austria.
Crazy?
It’s been a turmoil. When I interviewed my own parents two years ago during a writer’s retreat in Venice, Florida they both said they would never do it again.
“It doesn’t matter anymore because everyone back home is dead,” Vaclav said.
True, our most recent trips to Czech were for the purpose of attending funerals.
However, we all started a new life in the USA. It is a life of accomplishment, satisfaction and love.
Our son Jake has a beautiful family and he is very successful with the Faygo company. He studied at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Our daughter Emma lives in France with her family. Both her husband Adrien and Emma are medical doctors.
I learned to blog on WordPress, the biggest publishing platform in this world.
I am meditating on today’s theme “When the inner fire goes out and meeting another human being rekindles it.”
This is a big one because it has happened to all of us. We are sharing a common human experience.
It has happened to me many times in life and then I suddenly met a person who sparked the fire in me again. I recall them all. They were editors, fellow writers, business owners, store managers and directors.
Kathleen Mooney’s abstracts.
Most recently it has happened to me on the Internet with the 30 Day Content Challenge. I went into the challenge on Nov. 17 after finding out about it only on the previous day totally burnt out from years of writing.
I could have plain ignored it like I have other challenges. But, this seemed important.
Why was it important to me? It wasn’t to showcase anything or to prove to myself that I can do it. It wasn’t for the exposure either. It was because of the special bond these challenges create, they teach you discipline and you are helping others move forward. By helping others you are also helping yourself.
My weakness is the lack of discipline in everything. I like freedom without boundaries. But, that creates also problems. I can overeat, overwork and overdo. And after that I need rest to recharge my batteries. It’s like a vicious roller coaster.
Yes, the 30 Day Content Challenge rekindled my inner spirit. I found new passion for writing, met new people, made new friends on Facebook and twitter and I got new followers on EW Emma’s Writings.
So, in the end even though I wasn’t seeking exposure, I got it.
I found gratitude to those who led the challenge and helped out.
I found the writer in me who will never go away even when I try to throw that character out.
The cursor is blinking in front of me on a blank page. I am writing the third post today and that is Day #8 to catch up with the 30 Day Challenge.
The prompt for Nov. 24 was passion and pouring your heart and soul into everything you do. This theme is close to my heart as I never do anything without passion including my E Diary that is EW Emma’s Writings blog on WordPress.
Abstract art by Kathleen Mooney inspired by quilting.
I am passionate about writing whether you write for money or for free. I’ve done both. All fiction writing is done on speculation. You don’t know if you’re going to publish and make money or if people are going to buy your book. Blogging is a little different because you’re already creating a following that will hopefully transfer onto your other work. And you are publishing electronically. You have a sense of timelessness.
On the other hand, writing for money creates pressure, stress and the need for speed. Writing is therapeutic if not done under pressure, according to psychologists.
I am a passionate blogger as I create blogs for clients as well as my own. At times, it can be challenging finding something to write about. I am resourceful and search for inspiration wherever and whenever I can get it.
People and nature inspire me, art inspires me, jewelry and metal.
I am also a passionate entrepreneur. I use to sell real estate for Westdale. I started the company Emma Blogs, LLC in January of 2013 with the first blog and I have grown it to a portfolio of 12 blogs. With heart and soul into it, I use different themes for my blogs. I like the magazine theme and Lovecraft, Radcliff, Skylark themes and many more.
I am a firm believer that everyone should at least once during lifetime own their business. I heard this from an Internet guru Alan Teelander and from Mike Spranger, owner of Springrove Variety in Lowell, as well as other people like Pete Haefner, owner of an accounting firm.
Having a business is like growing flowers; you see it grow and flourish or wither. You take care of it, it takes care of you. During the three years, I’ve learned so much from organization and discipline to marketing and social media marketing. I’ve met so many interesting people on the Learn To Blog group and through the challenge. I feel enriched.
I am feeling physical and mental pain. My body is like on needles with pressure in the back of my head. The other pressure is inside my head. Here are some blogging stats.
With the challenge half way on, I reached a total of 310 posts on my WordPress blog EW Emma’s Writings over the last three years. The most favored post of the challenge seems to be Day #3 “Thoughts on fear in the wake of Paris attacks.”
Prague horloge on the Old Town Hall by “I love Czech Republic” group
However, I did manage to write post for Day #15 of the 30 Day Content Challenge by Learn to Blog “On the art of interviewing.”
Maybe that’s why I have that pressure inside my head. Now, I am playing catch up for Days #7#8#10#11 and #12. I just wanted to let go of those missed days, but then I read a post by Pittsburgh Grammy that she is catching up and today is the day to do it. I too want to reach a total of 30 daily posts. Thank you for inspiring me.
More about feelings of a writer and an artist.
Sometimes, I just plain feel numb, listless and drained. On other days I am overwhelmed by ideas, and I have to sort through them. I categorize them and organize them in my head. I don’t know if it depends on the weather, on how I slept or didn’t sleep or what I eat.
Experts and psychologists say writing is therapeutic when it’s not under pressure and when you write for yourself. Blog can serve as an electronic diary and for most of us it is an e-diary. You can freely express yourself without any censorship. You might be the only person reading your own post, but it’s still satisfying. The bonus is if others are reading as well, that is if they know about you.
The challenge bumped up my readership and following greatly to 612, and it increased the following on Facebook and twitter. Plus I wrote a Children’s Book for Josephine. I will keep adding pages to it sort of like posting.
I am very happy so far with the results writing this halfway through the challenge.
Note to my regular readers to avoid confusion. I am participating in a 30 Content Challenge by Learn to Blog. The posts show my views on this world including my own, as well as my varied experience, so they do dovetail well with the overall purpose of the blog EW Emma’s Writings.
I must say that I find the 30 Day Content event challenging to come up with a post a day. I draw inspiration from everything around me including events that are happening in the world.
Day #3 post titled “Thoughts on Fear in the Wake of Paris Attacks” is so far my favorite to answer Bradley Will’s question. I have yet to go through other people’s posts. It’s a lot of posts. The event has great participation. It trains regularity, consistency and the mind.
This morning I pondered the questions to ask of a prospective employer at an interview tomorrow, as well as my answers to their questions. I applied for a public relations/marketing position.
I did research on the company on Glassdoor reviews. I found the website very helpful. That’s why I am sharing this. The link to it is www.glassdoor.com/job/
Then go to reviews and interviews.
Spiral staircase at the Dali in St. Petersburg, FL
You will find out things that you would never find out from carefully written company websites. Once a candidate posts a review, the company cannot take it down. Both the reviews and the interviews were honest, written from the heart as the candidates meant it. And they came from all over the world.
They called the interviews easy and the team outgoing, more like friends than bosses. For now, I’ll bypass the reviews until I write my tomorrow Blogging Day #16. I have interviewed hundreds of people for stories from all walks of life, so I am comfortable asking strangers sometimes difficult questions.
I came up with the following questions to ask:
1-What is branding awareness through interactive marketing?
2- What kind of campaigns do you conduct?
3-How do you find clients?
4-What kind of experiential marketing techniques do you use?
5-Can you explain the collaboration technique?
6-Why do you have an orange logo? That question comes from the fact that I own an orange Dart.
Why an orange Dart? Because I like different things. Maybe they are the same way.
Now, my answers to their questions:
Which of the three do you have: work ethic, student attitude, positive attitude?
After reading the reviews it became clear to me that the correct answer is work ethic.
Why do I want to work for them, if they ask? I spent a lot time pondering this one. My son Jake suggested this question based on his own three-part interview experience.
Well, our goals match. What goals? To match the consumer to the brand and to use collaboration in marketing. I like that. I’ve always been for collaboration and innovation.
Why am I the best person for the job?
Because I am unique. We each are unique and have different skills and capabilities. I have experience and I always love what I choose to do from retail, writing to blogging.
Will I continue my blogging business Emma Blogs, LLC?
Of course I will. I love everything about it: creativity, design, writing, feedback, newsletter design, the challenges and helping others to learn to blog.
Fallasburg, MI- I love everything about the Fallasburg Park and the village: the Covered Bridge, the Flat River, the house museums. It truly takes you back in time, away from the fear of technology, from the fear of the unknown and much more.
I live approximately three miles away from the park and I do social media marketing for the Fallasburg Historical Society. The park and the village serve as a major venue for many regional events such as the Fallasburg Festival for the Arts in the fall, the Fallasburg Bazaar and the upcoming Christmas in Fallasburg traditional party on Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. Please join us to celebrate the season.
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