The legend of Babushka

Will and Joy were intent on walking on one of the frozen canals that run through St. Petersburg. It was fun to pass under the bridges and admire glimpses of the city, such as the incredible Church of the Savior which with its green, blue and gold domes stood out in the winter sky. At a certain point, however, our two heroes, completely numb, decided to find shelter in a shop. They found an old bookcase open and also quite empty and so Will and Joy entered. There, there were rows of shelves overflowed with books, some modern, some much older. Will, intrigued, began to walk between the shelves when he saw an old hand illustrated book open on a lectern. It was written in Cyrillic and therefore impossible for Will to understand but the image was clear, it represented an old lady who, bent under the weight of a sack, walked in the night towards a star so bright that it lit up the darkness. That's the legend of Babushka! A voice said behind Will. It was the shop owner, who began to tell Will the magical story of Babushka. A long time ago, in a small village not far from St. Petersburg, lived an elderly lady, Babushka, who had the cleanest house in all of Russia. Babushka liked to wash and polish, she had only this after her son had left so many years ago. One evening, Babushka heard a knock on the door, there were three foreigners, dressed in tunics and turbans, who arrived on the back of a camel that was laden with gold, frankincense and myrrh. The three men asked for hospitality for one night, had been on the way for many weeks and were exhausted. Babushka offered them food and a bed to sleep on. The next day the three men told Babushka that they were following a star that would lead them to where a special child, the king of heaven and earth, was born, and asked Babushka to follow them. But the woman didn't want to. However, when the men were gone Babushka felt that she had to go too. In a corner of the house she still had her son's toys, they were dirty and dusty but would be a great gift for the newborn. So it was that Babushka spent three days cleaning the toys and then finally set out. She followed the star and walked until her shoes were worn out. When she finally arrived in Bethlehem, however, there was no one left, the child had been taken away by his parents. From that day Babushka decided to give every year to all the children of the world the gifts that she had not been able to give to little Jesus. Mmm… Will thought, but Babushka, then, is the Befana! What a fascinating story, I can't wait to tell it to my children and so saying he felt a tear run down his cheek, he wiped it quickly and decided that he would never think about it anymore, he had to get back on the road ...

More wellness with essential oils… of the Befana! Do you know that frankincense essential oil is an aid against fatigue, stress and insomnia (Reis et al, Holist Nurs Pract, 2018)? You can spread it around the room or apply it on the body with a massage, for example you can dilute 2 drops of frankincense essential oil in two tablespoons of sweet almond oil and massage onto the skin. And if you add two drops of essential oil of myrrh you can obtain a blend in which the two essences work in synergy to maximize the anti-inflammatory and analgesic action in case of muscle and joint pain (Bo Cao et al, Molecules, 2019).