A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker - This sequel to The Art of Hearing Heartbeats was the perfect book to read in anticipation of my upcoming trip to Burma. 10 years after she first visited Burma, Julia goes back on a mission to discover the source of a troubling voice in her head that she is certain is not her own. The ensuing stories that are interwoven with her own are beautiful and moving. Her brother U Ba's wisdom coupled with the stories somehow inspire me to be more zen. One step at a time. Life might be all about attachment and what it means, and life is definitely about love. Read it.A couple of weeks ago I made a reservation to go to Myanmar with my friend Nancy, then realized my passport wouldn't be valid because it was going to expire 4 months after I returned. Yes, you read right. Passports don't really expire on the date on the passport. They effectively are expired for most travel 6 months before the date on the passport. So I rush applied for a new passport, and it arrived in a week. Now I have to get my travel Visa, and I will be good to go. Somehow, ever since I made the plan to travel, I've been more at peace than I've been in ages. In preparation for the trip I have books to read about Myanmar, mostly fiction, one about food, and maybe a history or two. It's very exciting to be going to a completely new place. I don't want to know too much, same as before I read a book or watch a movie. I want to experience it with as much freshness and newness as possible. If there is a place that "must be seen" sometimes that isn't a place I really need to see. I have no idea whether it is still possible at this stage of my life to return from a trip changed and inspired; it happened all the time when I was young. We shall see.
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