I have a cute printed box in my kitchen containing various clippings from newspapers and magazines of recipes I may or may not have tried over the years. Some are yellowed, curled and maybe tattered around the edges with a splatter of something from making that recipe. Mixed in with these recipes, are several handwritten recipes on index cards, note pages and scratch paper. Like the BBQ recipe written on the back of a call message pad sheet while I was at work one day getting a co-worker’s famous BBQ pulled pork recipe. Some in pen, written neatly on index cards specially designed for recipes and others written in a hurry on whatever was available at the time.
Sifting through the box searching for a recipe is always nostalgic. The ingredients seem to mix with a remembered story or memory about how it all came to be inside this recipe box. There is something deeply special about sharing recipes. I had always heard that really special recipes that are handwritten and passed on to others always have at least one ingredient missing. I have several recipes with just such a condition on them.
The missing ingredient is done to protect the originator’s recipe to be unique and allows each person to personalize the recipe with their own twist. I really love this about the handwritten special recipes contained in my recipe box. Too often we think of recipes of only what is contained in the list of recipes and steps to make but those truly wonderful recipes have the ability to truly be our own. Somehow I that only adds to the specialness of these particular recipes I have in my box.
I think this love of special recipes that forces us to make it our own with my own signature secret ingredient is what drew me to natural living. It would be so easy to go through a trial of trying to replicate the original but a great deal rewarding when you find the one little thing that distinguishes it as yours. It is the uniqueness that give us all our own imprint like fingerprints that become our legacy for when we pass down the recipe to another. It also when it comes to our health, becomes our pathway to supporting our unique health needs.
The beauty of essential oils is our response to them. Each of us can have a different experience with the same oil. Similar to how our taste buds pick up different flavors in a recipe, essential oils bring out cellular responses unique to our body. The ability to support our health in this way becomes one of the most personal and direct ways we can improve and enhance our lives. Figuring out the secret ingredient to these recipes that best serve us is as easy as the personalization of any recipe as well.
Starting out with making my own essential oil blends, I followed the recipes I found as closely as I would a homemade cake with careful and precise measurements. I learned through this process what worked and what did not as I tried various recipes. It was however when I learned to read what my own body needed that I began to enhance the recipes to my own needs. This not only made them uniquely my own but they increased the effectiveness I was seeking to supporting my health.
It is not that following a recipe will not give you good results, because it will and does. Yet, that enhancement of a recipe to add just what you need or is mixed in different ratios to bring out what your working on is where incredible results become possible. Knowing what to add or how much of something to increase or decrease is where basic knowledge, some experimentation and natural curiosity are not only necessary but what make the experience a positive one. If we are not open to the possibility of possible and positive results it usually doesn’t matter what ingredient we add. Love is the essential ingredient in all recipes, including those we make to heal ourselves.
Once I opened my own curiosity to essential oils and felt courageous enough to seek my own results, a new realm opened. There were no limits to what I could create and do catering to my own needs and interests. I would write notes in book margins, on index cards and in a notebook of the recipes that I used and what results I found. I would carefully include the variations to the recipes I was making to test results and make note of what I liked and didn’t. It became a box unto itself filled with recipes I could sift through when in need of something.
As I started sharing my recipes with others, I always include the comment that each person should take the liberty of making it their own. Become attuned to your body and listen to what it tells you. Then add in that ingredient to the recipe. The basic recipe shared will work for you but for truly personalization of your healthcare needs, that natural curiosity to explore and learn about our own body is necessary. From there, I believe there is nothing we cannot heal in ourselves to strengthen, improve and enrich our lives.
Perhaps one day recipes I have shared with others will be found in their notebooks and recipe boxes where a smile of a memory or experience comes to mind when they see the recipe card. It will become cards they pass on to others with the secret ingredient being what that person needs it to be for them.
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