My first evening in Prague was spent in the Smetana Concert Hall listening to Mozart's Requiem. What a beautiful piece of music- quite otherworldly and moving from start to finish. That first night kind of set the mood for the next two days of my trip as I wandered around Prague with the Requiem still in my head staring up at old gothic cathedrals. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic is now about 40% atheist...horrible what years of communism can do.

Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.

Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando judex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus.

Day of wrath, that day
Will dissolve the earth in ashes
As David and the Sibyl bear witness.

What dread there will be
When the Judge shall come
To judge all things strictly.

There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos. Milan Kundera

Off to Prague tomorrow morning and will be gone for a little over a week. I've never traveled alone so I'm not sure what to expect. Hopefully the trip will give me some time to sort out some life questions that have been eating at me...

Well, if you're reading this, pray that I'll have a fruitful and clarifying trip...and that I won't get mugged or beaten... thanks.