In the beginning....

This post is all about my first real exposure to essential oils.

                    It was a couple years ago (approx. 2010) and I was in the middle of my college experience at the University of Oregon.  During my time in college I had a great group of friends and we would gather once a week to play volleyball. One week, a girl friend of mine fell wrong and twisted her ankle. It hurt her pretty bad and she couldn't play the rest of the night, so we took her home and helped her get her set up for resting on the family couch. 

                     Her mom came out to see if she could do anything and my friend asked for some 'oils'. I was super confused as I'd never heard of anyone using an oil for a sprained ankle. Her mom got out a shoebox-sized plastic bin full of little vial-looking containers full of different oils and started rubbing one of the oils on her ankle.   .........   I grew up in Eugene,  Oregon  ...  I thought I'd seen all the crazy possible.  I immediately doubted and thought it was irrational to believe that some oil could magically seep through your skin and heal tender ligaments. Then again, placebos can work a lot of magic so I thought to myself, 'if anything it's a good-smelling placebo...'  

                   My friend's mom did teach us something interesting about the oils though; if the oils smell good to you it means you're healthy and free of toxins. I've never drunk, done drugs, or smoked a day in my life, so it did make sense to me that the oils smelled like delicious lemony goodness to me.