The Opening Ceremony had so many breathtaking moments my heart was on overload.  The magnificent “Both Sides Now” presentation made me cry, and KD Lang’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” surrounded by 60,000 candles was breathtaking.  The entire Opening Ceremony was filled with powerful joy.  I always feel happy at the Olympics, as if world peace has come true.  I wish the whole world could know that feeling every day.  So much goodness packed into one frame of time and space.

I was also fortunate to see Apolo Ohno skate some ice off!  He became the most decorated Winter Olympian in US history and deserves the honor.  For Valentine’s Day I saw the pairs figure skating, very appropriate for the day celebrating love.  After meeting some new friends from Mexico City at the Olympic Store at Robson Square, we attended the men’s figure skating competition, which was the best Olympic sporting event I’ve ever seen.  Sitting fourth row from the ice, I could literally see the sweat on their brows and hear the swish of the ice beneath their skates.  I was surprised how much more spectacular the event was in person – those athletes are incredible!  After a lifetime of watching skating on television, to see it up close and personal was surreal.  I was happy that Evan Lysacek won the gold, he deserved it.  I was also lucky to attend my first hockey game, US vs. Switzerland, a great introduction to the sport.

The one day it didn’t rain or snow in Whistler was the day I made it up there, and the drive to Whistler reminded me of the Swiss Alps.  Breathtaking beauty all around, and for some reason I was mistaken for Apolo Ohno twice that day.  Ha!  I took it as a compliment.  Then, by chance, the one Victory Celebration ticket I had received (given to me on the street one day) turned out to be for Canada’s first ever gold medal won at home!  Alex Bilodeau from Quebec won the men’s moguls, and you can imagine how the crowd reacted – I’ve never heard such thunderous cheering.

I also discovered my alltime favorite pub name in Vancouver:  Funky Winker Bean’s!  Who could come up with a more unique and fun name for a pub?  Leave it to Vancouverites.  And finally, beyond belief, I found that KFC in Canada offers vegan soy-chicken sandwiches.  They were so delicious I actually started craving them by the end of my trip, and still miss them!  Thanks to PETA and the lovely Canadian animal rights activist Pamela Anderson for negotiating the introduction of that item to the market in Canada.

And now, to my great joy, I can add another reason why I love Canada:  A publishing house in Montreal, Quebec, recently released the French edition of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life.”  Now available in both Quebec and in France.  I was delighted to receive some copies of it and, although my French skills are not what they once were, it was fun to read.  My friends in Paris tell me it is excellent, and being well-received in France.  My gratitude to everyone who worked on this French edition, especially to the brilliant Québecoise translator Josée Guévin.  Vive le Québec! Vive le Canada!

Thankfully, most of my travels have been a good mix of pleasure and business, and a nice combination of new sights as well as familiar places.  With my visits to Paris and London, although I’ve visited those cities often since childhood, this year’s visits were my favorite ever.

New places, like Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota were also a welcome treat this year.  I stood by the cornfields in Davenport, Iowa soaking in the quiet, natural majesty of the heartland and was enriched by it.  I sat in the Neptune gardens of Versailles palace of France and marveled at the fireworks spectacular that welcomed autumn, my favorite of seasons.  By the way, the French edition of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life” is scheduled to be published soon – can’t wait!

Maybe it was the evident French influence in Iowa, with Des Moines exhibiting reminder after reminder that it was once the capital of the French colonies, I’m not sure what it was but somehow the transition between the farmlands of the Midwest and the palaces of Europe was seamless for me.  I felt completely at home in both.  London also welcomed me with open arms, and I enjoyed the amazing musical Billy Elliot as well as a marvelous dinner at one of the Whole Foods markets in London, the biggest in the world actually, and I was in pure vegan heaven.  It was the best meal I’ve ever had in London.   Then to Oxford, and the Pink Giraffe vegan Chinese restaurant, and another of the best meals of my life!  Who knew they fixed the bad food problem in UK?  They should send out a press release to let everyone in the world know.  Love it.

Most recently, I visited my beloved Soka University in Aliso Viejo, CA for a scholarship fundraising gala.  I enjoyed bidding on all kinds of wild auction items and mostly left with lots of golf-related items.   My new friend Howard Jones from the UK came and played at the event, and his remarkable talent was the icing on the cake of a hugely successful evening.  Next year I’m planning to visit Soka University in Tokyo for the first time in much too long, and I’m looking forward to it.  Hopefully when the cherry blossoms bloom and the campus is covered in pink petals with majestic Mt. Fuji in the background.

Throughout all my travels this year, I’ve kept a journal of thoughts and I’d like to share a few of my favorites with you.  As they have done for me, may each of these simple thoughts promote lasting happiness and ways of thinking that truly open your life now and always:

• You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
• There is no sunbeam that is separate from the sun, and so there is no person who is separate from the Source.
• What is your purpose in life? If you had all the time and money in the world, how would you express yourself? The answer to that, is your purpose.

There seems to be a reality check going on in hearts of many, remembering what is really important versus what we’ve been told was important.  Perhaps we can all see now that the shiny veneer of America’s throw-away consumer culture has always been as superficial and unsustainable as the ad campaigns that sold us on it.

A universal and time-honored truth is that when we are challenged by hardships, we appreciate anew the simple and best things in life, those intangible riches that bring us tangible happiness.  The “best things” in life are different for everyone – yet as the old saying goes, almost always free.

These days for me, the best things in life are many – the pure joy in my puppy dog’s face after we play a long game of catch…  the impossibly deep blue of the water and sky off my lazy balcony in Sayulita…  that look from a friend with whom I need not exchange a word to know exactly what we’re both thinking…  the shining double rainbow in the desert on my drive to San Diego…  the buzz of a diligent wild bee through the tiny blue flowers in my backyard.

To remind ourselves of the divine in this life, sometimes it takes facing difficulty, an emotional jolt, or a shift in our collective cultural consciousness.  Adversity has the magical ability to snap us out of a living sleep, helping us live more widely awake in the here and now, purely aware of what this moment is and has to offer – what this moment needs of us.  Such an awakened state of life is a gift beyond measure.

So maybe the hard times our country and world are going through are a blessing in disguise.  “There is always a piece of fortune in misfortune,” goes one of my favorite sayings.  I hope we all find pieces of good fortune in any misfortunes we may endure now and in the future, always appreciating the present moment and seeking to find joy within it.  After all, if we can be happy here and now, we will forever be happy, for there is only the here and now.

As I wrote in my book “Living Wabi Sabi: The True Beauty of Your Life:” Appreciate this and every moment, no matter how imperfect, for this moment is your life.  When you reject this moment, you reject your life.  You don’t have to settle for this moment, you are free to steer a different course, but for now, this moment is yours, so be mindful to make the most of it.”

May you make the most of every moment now and forever.  May you appreciate the best things in your life, the smaller the better.  And may blessings shower down around you like fragrant petals in the fresh Springtime breeze.

As I do every January, I’ve been pondering what causes I can contribute toward, to help create a better world for us all.  My focus this time is on the little angels we call dogs, cats, horses and other animal companions we are blessed to know on this Earth.  The immense joy and unconditional love my heart has received from my animal companions over the years is too great to measure.  I hope you are one of the lucky people who has had your life enriched and enlightened by an animal angel.

With great happiness I now devote my support to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and to the no-kill animal shelter in my local area.  The ASPCA was the first humane society to be established in North America, founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans, and must be protected under the law.  They are a privately funded not-for-profit corporation, so your donations are tax-deductible.  The ASPCA provides local and national leadership in several key areas: caring for animal guardians (that’s us) and animals, providing positive outcomes for at-risk animals, and serving victims of animal cruelty.  They also support efforts to find loving families for shelter animals.

In my experience, animal shelters are run by some of the most compassionate people in the world.  They need help in many ways, from donations of simple items like pens and paper, to blankets and tasty treats for the animals.  They work day and night to care for the most needy animals, while they wait for their new families to find them in the shelters.

Please urge everyone you know to STOP supporting pet stores that use puppy mills, and instead support your local animal shelter.  Please choose to save the life of an orphan animal waiting in a shelter.  They are dreaming of finding you, they just want to join a loving family in a forever home.  Please educate yourself and your friends and family members about the sad reality of puppy mills that stock our nation’s pet stores with animals.

There are countless gentle animals shivering alone in shelters tonight whose only wish is to be saved and adopted into a safe place.  The love, loyalty, and friendship you will receive from rescuing an animal in need will be your eternal reward.  It’s as if there are rooms filled with gold (the spiritual kind) available now to enrich your life, and all you need to do is go get it!  Please join me and stand up for the rights and dignity of animal angels in need today.  Please look up your local animal shelter, and visit the ASPCA website to learn more about how you can help now.

“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I’m not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people’s faces. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.” TIME Nov. 5, 2008

Enjoy will.i.am’s new music video, It’s A New Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHWByjoQrR8

Yes, I am happy to say I already voted for Barack! Where I live, the polling booths open in mid-October. There I was on day #1 of early voting, lined up with a packed room of other citizens to cast my vote for real change, hope and security for our nation and our world. Now I eagerly await seeing the Obama family as our first family.

I and many friends and members of my immediate and extended family have also volunteered our time to support the Obama campaign. It has been both fun and exhilarating. I encourage you in these final days of the campaign, the most important days, to get involved now. The time is now! Visit this link to Barack’s website to help out and volunteer even a few hours of your time. You’ll be glad you did: http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/newvolunteer

As I’m always wearing an Obama/Biden shirt or cap these days, I seem to get a constant stream of compliments. Sometimes there are folks who tell me they are not sure about supporting Barack Obama and Joe Biden. After a few minutes of conversation, they usually say they’re happy they could ask questions of me, since I’ve had the privilege of meeting Barack and Michelle as well as Joe Biden. All three of them are even more impressive in person, and I’ve come to know a lot about each of them, their histories, their character, their judgment, and their hopes. I wish everyone had a chance to meet with them personally, as I’ve been fortunate to do.

If you are like one of the good folks I’ve met along my journeys undecided in their support for the Obama/Biden ticket, please feel free to send me a question about the campaign. I would be happy to hear from you.

The truth is, all facets of the natural order — the physical natural world and the human world — are completely connected and interrelated, and cannot be separated even the slightest bit. Disorder and aberration in one sector will affect other sectors. If we want to live in happiness and peace, we must learn how to live in balance and harmony with all spheres of our natural environment: the internal and the external, the individual and the social, the physical and the spiritual.

To create true happiness, we must reflect on the interrelationship of all things, see ourselves clearly as one part of the causal relationships within the natural order. To do this we become aware first of the internal mental/spiritual factors we create, then we see how those factors attract to us and manifest various effects in our life experiences, in society, and ultimately in the world around us. Once this system of causal relationship, of interdependence, is understood on the spiritual level, we grow to see the connections between our inner factors and their causal relationships in our lives and every aspect of our environment. What is unseen inside us, we will attract, and it will be seen outside us. This simple ray of understanding can lead us to true independence, an independence that honors our connection to all others and all that exists in the universe while cherishing ourselves and looking to no one but ourselves to solve our own problems from the inside out. This is also known as the law of attraction.

Speaking of attraction, I just can’t seem to stay away from my favorite spot in Punta Mita, Mexico this year. It pulls me back all the time. Above is a view down the coast toward the residents beach club near my home. And the one below that is a view of the famous Malecon boardwalk down the coast in downtown Puerto Vallarta. My family and I have decided to open up our homes in Mexico to guests for vacation rentals, and my web designers are now creating a separate, beautiful site just for the vacation properties, so stay tuned for that. I hope you can visit my little piece of paradise sometime soon! For now, you can see more about the beach properties via the links on my Yoga and Contact pages here on this site.

In other news, I have teamed up with my buddy Oded, who is a genius Israeli jewelry designer living in Tokyo, to create the first pieces of the Taro Gold jewelry line. Oded owns and operates one of the coolest jewelry stores in Tokyo, on Harajuku Street, called Oz Abstract. The first piece we’ve created is a pendant of the Taro Gold logo, a diamond inside a lotus flower. My logo signifies the diamond of wisdom and joy we all possess in our hearts, and the flower of strength and beauty that blossoms from our lives as we overcome each challenge, down, and hardship (the lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud). Here’s a preview of the lotus pendant for you:

As we move into summer, I wish you all the very best of health and happiness. Thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes for my grandmother earlier this year. To all the doctors’ amazement (and ours), grandma is still hanging in there, making us smile each step of the way. This independence day as my family and I salute her strong character, one example of a truly independent spirit, I vow to live with as much vigor, courage and laughter. May you always know such joy as well!

Thankful to say hello to Spring last month, I thought I could soon say goodbye to the string of cold weather in Tokyo. Not to be – it was so cold last weekend if it had rained I felt like it would snow! The seasonal cycle of hello goodbye stretched out a bit longer.

Around the same time that Spring officially began, my grandmother fell ill, and another kind of hello goodbye began for me. When grandma was first admitted to the hospital, her doctors said she would live only a few days. Family members rushed to say goodbye. That was almost two months ago now. Although goodbye will come, no one knows exactly when. Today, grandma is still smiling, still laughing, telling us she doesn’t know either. One thing we do know, we have to make the most of our time between each hello and goodbye. Isn’t that the most rewarding knowledge of all?

Beginnings and endings – punctuation marks, dotting the paragraphs that make up the story of our lives. Let the punctuation marks do their job, but focus on creating the best life in between. A script filled with happiness, sadness, ups, downs, lots of questions, not so many answers… all leading to growth, openness, hope. Everything worth remembering from yesterday, doing today, and dreaming for tomorrow.

The eternal cycle of hello goodbye reminds me to create my own lines, weaving colorful words through whatever punctuation points comes along in life. Joy is not found in the stops and starts of hello goodbye. Joy is in the middle, the flow, the now. That is the sweet and simple secret every hello goodbye hides inside.

Sunset at Moonlight State Beach

Sitting by the wide blue ocean near my grandma’s home at Moonlight Beach, the sun said goodbye again today. Then the moon said hello. How can I be sad that the radiant sun has said goodbye when the shining moon says hello? So goes the flow of hello goodbye, forever perfect in glorious detail.

By the time you read this, I’ll be watching the sun and moon over Brazil, where the Portuguese edition of my book Open Your Mind, Open Your Life (Abra Sua Mente, Abra Sua Vida) is being honored by bookstore chains in the grand cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia. If you enjoy the good fortune to have a Brazilian friend, then you know how Brazilian people savor each moment of life, celebrating every hello and goodbye as if it was their first and their last, cherishing every moment in between. Viva Brasil!

Cover image, Brazilian edition of Open Your Mind, Open Your Life

Many friends around the world have encouraged me to spend more time in Brazil for that very reason, and here’s a happy chance to do so. After Brazil, it’s on to Mexico for a family retreat in Punta Mita, then back to beloved Tokyo and collaborating with great minds for the upcoming special-editions of my books in Japanese. Until my next post here, my next online hello goodbye, may you live always in the sublime light and power of your unique now. Ciao!

I’ve noticed that the more I travel and the more my work progresses around the globe, the more I feel that a joyful life is a true state of being beyond thinking and feeling, beyond possessions and wants. Joy is the undercurrent of life, the universal identity we all share beneath superficial differences. I believe this is why some of the folks I have met in materially impoverished neighborhoods around the world are some of the most spiritually wealthy people I’ve ever met. Not to say that possessions and worldy success necessarily hinder spiritual growth. As Deepak Chopra says, he’s not only a prophet, he’s also a profit. Funny!

As I celebrate the latest expansion of my work with my friends in Israel (this is the cover of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life” in its new Hebrew edition) I also feel a sense of urgency to help increase the common awareness of humanity that you and I and everyone are noble students of joy in this cosmic boarding school called Life. Some of us like to study harder than others, true! Still I feel we are all in this together for some greater purpose, and I hope we all make the most of our lives each day with a smile. Give, breath, calm the mind, awake… open up and let the still space between thoughts whisper hints of our true mission, essential purpose. Compassion, joy.

I received a great gift, a reminder of the glorious wonder of Being, while playing on the beach in Mexico with my dog. Last month was the season of baby sea turtles hatching, struggling to find their way out to the wide ocean to begin their long lives. As I ran past a little dark patch in the sand, at first glimpse a rock, I saw it moving! There on its little back mightily fighting to right itself was a beautiful baby sea turtle. I called my friends to see, carefully scooping this tiny treasure of nature into my hands to help find the way down to the waiting blue waves. If you look closely, seems my friend was smiling at me, what do you think? I am told sea turtles live to be 100 years old, so perhaps long after I’m gone from this existence my little sea turtle friend will return to that beach one day and recall the joy of our meeting that fine sunny morning.

It was surreal enough to watch from afar on the news, let alone to be there or to lose something to the fires. Fortunately, all of my friends and family members escaped harm, and all of our properties in San Diego County were safe from damage. A friend in Malibu, however, awoke to the sound of sirens one night and within minutes had to escape her home with her husband and animals in tow. Their entire property was lost in the same fire that destroyed the famous castle and church in Malibu. When I saw her in LA a bit later, she was most appreciative to be safe… as for everything else: “Everything else, just stuff,” she said with a sincere smile. I will remember the strength and wisdom of that moment forever.

When I visited San Diego after the fires had calmed, I took this photo. I felt the beautiful mix of color from the sunset and swirling clouds of the night sky were healing the ground below.

In November I returned to Tokyo and happily resumed my talks with music company folks regarding plans for 2008. My team working with Taro Gold Music, Inc. have already opened a “backstage area” that will progressively grow along with the project. You can see it now at www.myspace.com/tarogoldmusic and you can hear several of my new songs there. We will also have www.tarogold.jp up and running soon as well as a refreshed and renovated new tarogold.com in the new year.

On a different but mysteriously related note, when I was at my dentist’s office for a check up, my hygienist asked if I knew Angela Aki, another part-Japanese part-Western singer songwriter who is popular in Japan. I know of her, but had never met her. “I went to high school with Angela in Hawaii” my dental pro commented, “and I have a feeling you are going to meet her soon.” One week later, I was at Sony Music Studios in Tokyo to finish recording details on a few of my songs, and the screen below is what greeted me in the studio that day.

The bottom of the screen shows my session as Taro G, and the one above shows who is in the room next to me, in Japanese writing it reads “Angela Aki.” So there we were. How fun is that?

Speaking of fun, I hope you and yours enjoy a happy, healthy and joyous end of this year. As we celebrate the holidays and look forward to the coming new year, I wish for each of our lives to be filled with blessings and appreciation. If something not-so-fun happens to come along, may we all have the grace to focus on what is most truly important in our lives and remember that everything else… “everything else, just stuff.”