vital ones,
At the end of the year, we gather and celebrate the changes, or look inward and assess our lives, looking forward to the year ahead. For me, this time is always sweet and a bit sad. Sweet, because I was born December 11th and love birthdays, sad because my Dad died at the end of November ten years ago, and tonight I go to temple to mourn his passing.
Jack was a wise man in a down-to-earth way. After college, I moved to San Francisco and tortured myself with all the options for my life: lawyer, ad man, teacher...the choices abounded. Jack said simply, "Don't think so much about what you want to do. Think about what the world needs, and how you can best fulfill those needs." It's advice that led me to teach, then to non-profit work, and finally, unexpectedly, to champion the cause of industrial hemp through clothing and other useful items made from hemp. I'm so grateful to have found this vocation, because it combines my artsy side (choosing colors and designing clothes) with my social side (serving customers and hemping them out), and satisfies an enduring desire to address "what the world needs."
I see many people around me rising to this challenge, sharing their gifts through yoga teaching, food, music, green, sustainable business, or just the love-sweet-love they share with their family, friends and community. This year I took some big steps to give my best to all the circles that comprise my life, and these circles feel like they're communicating, reverberating like a melodious drum or the accordion Jack used to play in our living room.
So what does all this have to do with vital hemp you may ask?
It's like this: for years, I played it safe in so many ways. I remained a happy-go-lucky bachelor; I looked at kids with a fond, but distant feeling; I pursued my business, but without really going for it. It felt like I was procrastinating... Or maybe, as the Talmud says, "You'll find your soulmate when you're ready." So a few years ago, I found my beloved, and this year we're raising our daughter. In business, this marks the year I produced my first and second domestically-made hemp clothing lines, made right here in Los Angeles, California, USA.
This year, we also gathered the disparate strands of vital hemptations and moved them all into one place, a storefront headquarters, now called simply "vital hemp," located across the street from the Community Gardens at 2305 Main Street in Santa Monica. It's a place we've infused with our sensibility, a sense of beach and mountains born of this very land, a place you can come to dive into our newest hemp clothing, behind the hemp curtains of our dressing rooms, a place where babies (including Eden) can crawl around, perhaps donning one of our baby beanies. As the store develops, we're looking to create a hemp exhibit in back, and offer the space as a center of hemp art, activism and other worthy causes.
As ever, we want to collaborate with you, your store, company or non-profit, spreading the joy of hemp throughout the land. Contact us if you want to sell our goods in your part of the world. They sell really well. Or perhaps you want to make some logowear with the most wonderfully soft, best-fitting hemp blanks available. Or develop some custom project--unrealized until we manifest together. Whatever your hemp dreams, let us know. We're still here to satisfy your hemptations.
Finally, this month marks the launch of our all-new e-commerce site at www.vitalhemp.com. To say it's been a long time in coming would be an understatement. Thankfully, it all works now, and we have a good selection of styles here just in time for the holidays. If you use the code "grow," you'll get a nice 12% discount on your purchase. Thanks in advance for your support.
I know Jack would have loved one of our 2XL hemp long sleeve tees, just as much as Eden loves her miniature hemp pants. Why don't you check out what style and colors will suit you or a loved one? We guarantee our hemp will revitalize all.
Hempy holidays!!!
Ron and the new vital hemp crew
