The timing on your question is another example of the serendipity that has created Nature's Gift. As I type this, another friend is renovating a 70 year old house for us to move the business into. We should be moved in and up and running there by the time this issue comes online, at 314 Old Hickory Blvd East, Madison, TN. 37115.

I feel like a white water rafter...the raft is speeding ahead far faster than my comfort level allows, and there's swirls and rapids ahead. But I'm not alone in this raft.

The new building will allow us a small retail shop, in addition to the mail order/internet business that has so amazingly grown. Perhaps people will come, perhaps they won't. We'll see. However we will finally have space that every employee can work on the same day, and the business will not be in every room of my house. When clients email that they are going to be coming near Nashville and would love to come and visit, we'll be able to welcome them.

Nature's Gift grew out of my love for the oils, out of my awe of their healing power, and my passion for the best. Because I am mostly self-taught, I made mistakes, out of ignorance, and I pay the price of them today. I used the oils unwisely, because no one taught me about sensitization. So I stress safe and appropriate use of these healing essences I love. I respect their power.

What do you feel that you contribute to the aromatherapy community?

I think I do a lot of educating. Not in the sense of a "course" or "teaching," but a lot of sharing of information. Our website tries to inform our visitors. 

I spend a lot of time carrying that particular message, to massage therapists at their conferences, to soapers and toiletries makers at their gatherings, in various online venues.

I doubt I'll ever be asked to speak at an aromatherapy conference. I lack the proper credentials and the appropriate training or whatever.

However I get to introduce grieving parents to the solace of rose and frankincense, and help people heal their scars with helichrysum and rosehip, or ease their pain with lavandin and whatever. We get to make a difference in people's quality of life.

I answer a lot of questions in the average day, probably fifty to one hundred. Sometimes in public lists, more often in private. "My husband has shingles, is there anything that will help?" and I quote my teachers or mentors.

"I'm having a really hard time because "this" is going on, can you suggest something that can help me cope?" and I share what has helped me cope. Sometimes we send express mail bottles of helichrysum, or rose, or special blends where the need seems desperate.

Two of the young women who work for me are amazingly powerful healers. I have never seen myself as a healer; I've always felt that was a gift that I lack. But I've been able to participate in the work of so many healers, to participate in the healing process.

"Boxes full of joy and healing." What a gift to be allowed to go on doing that.