A note to all. I am participating in a 30 day content writing challenge by Learn to blog. All posts reflect my views on today’s world including my own.
This morning I woke up to a Facebook post that made me cry from Czech homeland. It was from Radhost mountains in Czech Republic. I’ve been to the Radhost mountains many times even though I am a bad downhill skier, but the area has grown close to my heart.
Plus we got our first snow in Michigan yesterday.
I want to share the beauty of Radhost with all my friends.
Radhost mountains in Czech Republic.
Cyril’s chapel
Friends at Radhost.
Copyright (c) 2015 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
A note to my regular readers. I am participating in a Content Writing challenge by Learn to Blog. The posts show my views on today’s world including my own. I hope you enjoy all of them as part of stepping up my blogging.
Hastings, MI- Today we celebrated my girl’s second birthday. Josephine Marie Palova was born to a multi-cultural family. My son Jakub Pala is Czech and he is married to his American sweetheart Maranda Palova.
Josephine party
I am in awe how much they respect each other’s cultures. Maranda took on the Slavic name Palova instead of Pala. Jakub wants to keep the Czech language for his daughter Josephine. He speaks to her in Czech every evening after work.
He asked me if I could give her a book in Czech. Now, that’s a problem here. But, I am a problem solver. I got up this morning before the birthday party and started working on a simple book in Czech for Josephine.
A book for Josephine in Czech.
I firmly believe that Josephine will be fully bilingual, which is my son’s dream. I used simple sentences and clip art and I will keep adding pages to the core book and growing paragraphs as she grows.
I was most definitely inspired by the blogging challenge to do this. The group pulled me out of my depression. Thank you.
We had a great time at this multi-cultural party. Maranda and Jake were awesome hosts in their new home. I am so proud of both of them. They represent the best in the millennials.
Thank you for being great hosts and great children.
A note for my regular readers to avoid confusion: I am participating in a 30 Day Content Writing Challenge by Learn to Blog. All posts are relevant to how I feel and write about today’s world including my own.
Not afraid on day #4 of the content challenge
By Emma Palova
Lowell, MI- I wish I could say that I am scared, but I am not. It would be a lie to conform with the rest of the world. No, I didn’t go to Cabela’s to buy an AK47 known as Kalashnikov or a Beretta, and I don’t shoot deer either even though it’s the firearm hunting season in Michigan.
However, I did tell my daughter Emma Palova-Chavent, MD who lives with her family in France and loves to travel to lay low.
“Don’t go anywhere,” I said.
“Should I buy a gun,” she asked.
“No.”
Violence breads more violence.
Help, collaboration and diplomacy are the way to go in this chaotic world that honors and respects nothing. Local Michigan college Grand Valley State University wants to allow guns on the campus to show the terrorists they’re not afraid.
Well, who really is scared? The Republicans who passed a bill not to allow Syrian refugees into the most compassionate country in the world or the kids on the campus who want guns?
Lowell, MI- Experts say there are two great fears in this world. And they are interchangeable: the fear of dentists and the fear of public speaking. The fear of dentists translates to fear of pain, while the public speaking fear is about our image; how we look in front of others.
But, I know of a lot more. On top of the above mentioned fears, I have a fear of open heights and time. Not of aging, but of time when it’s displayed in front of me on a clock or on a calendar. That’s why I cannot wear watches or have alarm clocks.
I recently I found out that some people are afraid of technology.
I find that very interesting, that is the fear of technology. It should take us forward, but sometimes it seems like it’s taking us backwards like with the recent violence and evil in Paris.
Amaryllis
Now, the government wants access to our phones in the name of security.I am starting to feel like in Nazi Germany that I know from movies and stories.
How much more freedom will we have to give up in the name of security and safety? How safe can we get when everybody wants to know the location of our phones or you don’t get access to different Internet services? And the terrorists are running loose all over the world.
Some people on Facebook are suggesting that we arm ourselves with AK47s known as Kalashnikovs.
I can picture this now. All of us walking with Kalashnikovs into the theaters, operas, work, churches and stores. Wow, that’s like in the Middle East and people still get blown up in coffee shops.
We’ve taken a huge step backwards and lowered ourselves to the level of terrorists, to their tactics and way of life. Paris and NYC look like war zones.
And basically all this is over religion. When did any religion start preaching violence?
Big business likes to use scare tactics and security pretense to keep us consuming.
“Keep them scared and they will keep consuming,” goes the saying.
Modern societies have to reject violence in all its forms immediately. No one can thrive in fear and under constant threat of not enough security. That’s exactly what the terrorists want for us to be scared.
The featured image is the Greenwich Meridian memoir on the screen surrounded by various memorabilia like the economy class menu of the Czechoslovakian Airlines. I flew with them in 1989 for my second immigration to the USA.
Blogging anchored, Greenwich Meridian memoir evolves forward
By Emma Palova
EW Emma Writing
Lowell, MI- Now, that I am firmly anchored in the blogging world with Emma Blogs, LLC, a portfolio of blogs, I resumed working on the Greenwich Meridian memoir in mid-May. The blogging part may seem like a detour to many, not to me. I feel like I can take the book to its finale. I didn’t have that feeling before.
It took me a year-and-a-half to set up the blogging portfolio under the umbrella of http://emmapalova.com. Fellow blogger Leigh Ann Dickey said it took her two years to prove herself. So, don’t believe the hype out there like “Get a blog in 60 seconds,” or in five minutes, in an hour or in a day. And definitely, don’t pay any money for that pitch.
It just doesn’t happen. It’s like saying you’re going to learn calculus in a day. You may get the template like you would get a college-ruled notebook to start your math, and then what? Do you start with fractions, trigonometry or double integer?
Of course you start with the About page in the world of blogging. After all, you know the best what you are all about. Add a picture, it’s worth a thousand words.
Many blogging colleagues out there don’t know what their niche or target audience are. How are they supposed to pick a theme? Should they post every day and what should they post to attract that ever elusive traffic?
Maybe Stephen King asked himself the same question before his big Carrie break, “What should I write about so I make it big?”
I know I ask myself that question every week before posting, “What am I going to post this week or what is the next chapter outline?”
Other than King, I always think about German Martin Luther posting 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517 according to the student custom. The theses were a catalyst to a change.
Blog posts carry those same signs of a changing world. A shorter, faster world of pixels that has no time for long “expose” articles. Readers want to know everything and immediately.
Without the “how to” knowledge, blogging can feel like sailing on vast seas after you lost your compass. You started out right, what next?
The April newsletter is here. It’s been on my radar screen since I’ve established Emma Blogs, LLC. Every month, the newsletter will feature news from the blogs portfolio, blogging tips and editorial/marketing calendar. Features will include en excerpt from the story of the month and a featured blogger. You can submit who do you think should be featured and why, as well as a story,a poem or a photo with links to your blogs. You can also submit a story about your niche business with a link.
Emma Blogs newsletter for April.
The deadline for submission for the May newsletter is April 20. Happy blogging.
In my memoir “Greenwich Meridian,” I write about Czech and Slovak traditions that I have witnessed while living in Czechoslovakia with a touch of nostalgia. Some of them disappeared along with the old regimes, but most have survived mainly in villages and small towns preserved by enthusiastic small groups of people. Festive costumes for the holidays and special events reflect these traditions, as well as music, dance, food, and customs specific to each village and town.
We lived in Zlin, Moravia, which is the central part of former Czechoslovakia embedded in traditions. Both as a child and an adult, I lived and visited with my grandparents in Vizovice, a treasure trove of traditions.
Cousin Bronislav Pink ready for “schmigrust”
Easter celebrations in Czech and some other European countries are longer by one day, and that is Monday.
We have always indulged in lavish preparations for the long Easter weekend. That meant having enough meat, desserts, eggs, and beverages for three days. There were long lines just like before any major holiday. I spent a lot of time standing in lines and listening to what the old broads had to say.
“I am not going to tell him how much I spent,” a woman wearing a scarf and a fluffy skirt shook her head defiantly.
The other one with an apron over her dress smelled of burnt dough.
I thought, she must have burnt her kolache, a traditional festive pastry with plum butter.
The broad leaned closer to the first one and whispered something into her ear. Then they both laughed, until their bellies and chests were heaving up and down. I learned a lot standing in lines. The longer the line, the more I learned.
So, the culmination of it all is Easter Monday known for its “schmigrust,” an old whipping custom.
Traditional Czech festive costumes.
On that day, early in the morning ,large groups of boys and young men head out into the streets with their braided knot-grass whips or oversized wooden spoons decorated with ribbons. The day before, they spent many hours skillfully braiding their whips out of willow twigs or scouring the house for the biggest wooden spoon.
The boys go door to door, reciting traditional Easter carols like “Hody, hody doprovody,” asking the lady of the house for painted eggs. Then, they whip all the present women in exchange for decorated eggs and ribbons. Single women, and girls tied ribbons on top of the whip. I always wondered about the whipping custom, long before I ever set my foot out into the world. One day, grandma Anna finally explained it to me.
“It is supposed to resemble the whipping of Christ before he died,” she said.
“But, grandma that’s evil,” I cried.
Grandma just shrugged, and turned away. Later in life, I knew better than to question a tradition.
Easter desserts
Women of the house offered shots of plum brandy, usually home-made or acquired through bartering to the “schmigrust” groups. Even family members took part in this ritual. Uncles and cousins visited for coffee, festive desserts such as kolache, shots and meaningful conversation.
On a good year, and especially when I was a teenager, we got anywhere around 100 passionate revelers. Sometimes, I ran out of ribbons. The boys and young men, competing against each other, took pride in the number of ribbons they got. The craft stores had to stock up with meters and meters of ribbons, plain or embroidered. The hens, of course, felt obligated to produce more eggs.
I have created a monthly newsletter so all can stay in the loop. It highlights news from my Emma Blogs including the flagship EW Emma’s Writings site on http://emmapalova.com
I will always feature in it: the current editorial calendar and excerpts from the editor’s picks for each month. The editor’s pick for the month of April is the story “IW Hiker babe walks 4,600 miles in memory of daughter.” I will also include valuable blogging tips both in content and in design. Eventually I will add marketing tips as well.
You can find the story on the company blog/website Emma Blogs on http;//emmablogsllc.wordpress.com
Blogging is a constantly evolving story. You can send your story with a link to your blog. Why did you start blogging?
Happy Easter and blogging to all from
Emma and the EW team
Check out the new editorial calendar for spring from the end of March through June on Emma Blogs, LLC. The calendar has listings of events and activities in the area from Expos to festivals, and customer appreciation days.
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