If we could look back over our lives with a focused, “in the moment” awareness that most of us don’t have much or even most of the time, I think we’d notice that our lives have tended to offer us a series of bumps or nudges, things that happened either to us or people around us, things that weren’t planned, things that could have taken us on all kinds of interesting rides if we had been more flexible and open to change.

Now there is something to be said for setting a single minded goal and sticking to it. That tends to lead to “success” as we know it today, but could it be that, in the end, those of us who focus strictly on that “success” might be missing the best part of life’s ride?

Blake Hunter, a young man in his mid twenties, followed in his dad’s footsteps and became an electrician, but that wasn’t destined to be a life-long career.

Blake’s first “nudge” came when his dad found himself on several different medications for blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, but then someone suggested he start eating hemp seeds. A few months later, he was able to go off all medication. That’s how Blake became aware of hemp seeds.

About the same time, he met a number of organic farmers and was nudged into becoming more environmentally aware. That led him to leave his electrician work because, in his words, he didn’t want to be stringing hundreds of metres of rapidly depleting cooper wire so people could have three light switches in a room to save walking a few steps.

Soon a two year diploma in Tourism Management at Malaspina University-College nudged him to travel to their “Heart of Gold” project in Costa Rica where several professors and students are helping a growing group of organic coffee farmers to control the entire process from growing the beans to picking, drying, roasting, packaging and connecting with supportive marketers on Vancouver Island and beyond – You may remember a column I wrote on two former Malaspina students, Colten Vandermolen and Kevin Bell, who are doing just that.

That Costa Rican “nudge” led Blake to a farm in Saskatchewan that his parents had owned for years but never farmed. Working with the model he saw in Costa Rica, he is growing organic hemp seeds and controlling the entire process from preparing the land and planting the seeds to marketing his product here on Vancouver Island.

Eventually Blake plans on using the knowledge he gained through his Malaspina diploma to develop an Agra Tourism business on the farm. He is also interested in promoting the use of the hemp fibre for paper and clothing of course but apparently you can also use hemp to produce plastic and cement. Who knew?

Life’s been more than a little interesting for Blake so far, and he’s only in his mid twenties so there’s still a long way to go.

Are you open to being “nudged” by life?