Dear Friends and Family, 

Today I sent in the most recent editing note to Brandylane Publishing. That means IKIGAI is almost ready to print! One year ago, I was attending many New Year's parties to talk about IKIGAI to various Okinawan Village Clubs around Oahu. Thanks to my sensei Grant Murata, Kenton Odo and June Nakama I was able to visit many of you and received an overwhelming show of support. Thank you for pre-ordering and making the crowd-publishing a success! We are near the end of the editing process and as soon as I hear from my publishers about a print date I will let you know. 

This books journey has taken several years now, from the writing to publishing. I sometimes thought it might never happen, but now I know that the spirits guiding this book knew that the right people and right timing would happen if I just trusted. After I wrote the draft of IKIGAI, I pestered poet and novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka to be my mentor, and it happened. After many rejections from other publishers, life expert and Happiness U founder told me about Publishizer. And without the Publishizer platform, I would have never been connected with Brandylane Publishing. Then came my amazing Afuso-Ryu family, my family and friends and communities from all over the world who pre-ordered. So even if we are a little behind schedule, I have total trust that everything will happen exactly when it's meant to happen. The Universe has shown that to me the whole way. This is also the feeling that young Choichi learns to listen to when searching for his life's purpose, his ikigai. 

This book is dedicated to all the Choichis who are somewhere on their IKIGAI journey. In this New Year of the Ox, I want to wish all of you infinite blessings of abundance and good health. I also want to share a video by Tim Tamashiro that I think explains IKIGAI beautifully. Please enjoy!

Gratefully yours, 

Chiemi Souen