Read the “Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life” Blog

Authentically Teresa Funke – Never AI

It Just Feels Right

I’ve spent the past three weeks spinning my wheels. There were three projects I wanted to start. Each of them felt equally important and ambitious. It seemed crazy to start all three at once. Current thinking tells us that multitasking isn’t effective. Plus, there is the business side to consider: the sooner I complete a...

How Do You Identify?

Recently, I heard a new author speak about his book. He casually mentioned he was a Black/Latino writer. As he continued his story, I pieced together that his father was Puerto Rican and his mother was black. I asked him afterward if he identified as black or Latino. He said both. He said as a...

Go Beyond Yourself

I was listening to an On Being podcast in which poet David Whyte was recalling a story of a dinner with his writer friend John O’Donohue. He mentioned he was thinking of giving his father money and said the amount, and John said, “Oh David, go beyond yourself. Give twice that much.” David Whyte’s larger...

Why Not?

The other day, a friend told a story of a mentor who once said to her “Why not?” when she doubted she could do something. Two simple words, and yet where do we go from there? Well, typically we launch into a laundry list of excuses. All the reasons why not. And sometimes we can...

Magic in the Mess

Back-to-school ads brought a childhood memory to mind. In eighth grade, I was disappointed to get a certain English teacher. He had a reputation for being boring and dismissive and not too bright (although I’m sure 8th graders had harsher terms for him). And he proved to be all of those things. But halfway through...

Six Images a Day

I haven’t written much poetry since high school. I would never have described myself as a poet, nor did I think I’d ever want to. But recently I wrote a poem that sort of came gushing out, mostly because it was something I’d been wanting to write about for years, but the topic was too...