A friend e-mailed the other day to say, “It must be hard for you this week. You always throw a big party on your birthday and, this year, it’s going to be so quiet.” Indeed. It’s the little things that make you realize how much our lives have changed. Take coffee, for example. In...
I confess that I, too, have been using the word “unprecedented” to describe our current condition during this COVID-19 pandemic. And in so many ways, the word seems to fit. But then I came across these lines in Bill Bryson’s book, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, “London’s theaters were officially ordered shut, and would...
When my son was five years old, he got very sick. I called the doctor after hours and explained the symptoms over the phone. He paused and then said, “Tell me, Mom, what do you think?” “I think there’s something wrong. He’s not himself,” I said. “I trust a mother’s intuition,” he replied. “Take...
I woke up with a cold today. A very runny nose and a foggy brain: two things you do not want to confront on a day when you’re scheduled to do two interviews, one for a blog, the other for a podcast. I thought about cancelling, but I knew my hosts had deadlines, and...
This week, I’m letting followers of this blog know that the blog, “Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life” is moving from my Teresa Funke & Company website to my new Bursts of Brilliance ™ website as of this week! Subscribers to this blog will continue to receive an e-mail linking them to new...
A few years ago, I went to a political primary in my neighborhood. I’d been too busy to study up on the two candidates, and went hoping to hear something that would tell me which person should get my vote. I was still on the fence at the end of the evening. But then...
This week I attended a networking event in which a local business owner was given an award. The host of the evening, Nancy, conducted a short interview with the winner, whose name was Trish. One of questions Nancy asked was, “What would you go back and tell your younger self?” Trish gave a long...
I’ve been feeling lonely lately, ever since I got back from six weeks in Ireland with my husband. Not that kind of lonely. I have plenty of friends and a family that loves me and lots to do. This is a different kind of lonely, and it took me a while to put a...
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...
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...