Tales from Crete | 21

For thousands of years, people in both Crete and the rest of Greece have had various salves, made from nature's own products, as a regular ingredient in the family's "first aid kit". There is no hocus pocus in this, but as an old Danish saying goes, hardship teaches the naked woman to spin, which in all its simplicity has the meaning that if you want to solve a certain problem to a sufficiently high degree, you probably also have to find a way to do it. Yes, you would almost think that the term comes from Greek, but it doesn't. Because if there's one thing the Greeks are good at, it's finding solutions, no matter how unorthodox they may be, even in an otherwise orthodox country.

I learned as a child that there is always a way. It's just not always straight ahead, and you therefore sometimes have to take a small detour to find it. I have tried to teach my children the same. To find a solution to any problem, one must necessarily have the will to do and the belief that it can be done, and not just give up. You see the same thing time and time again when you move around in Greek. The Greeks built the Acropolis in Athens – a building that to this day still does not understand how it was built.

There was one of my Greek acquaintances who once said to me: "As long as the opposite is not proven, EVERYTHING can be done" and there may be something to that.

It is somewhat the same way with some of the Greek ointments that have been produced for thousands of years. There is no evidence to say, strictly speaking, how and why they work, but they do.

Since we started Elenas in 2012, we have had "The original Crete Salve" on the shelves. It is a thousand-year-old recipe based on beeswax, which many Greek doctors recommend for many different skin problems. I was told that this particular ointment was good for psoriasis, but it is a bit difficult to ascertain if you do not suffer from the disease yourself. On the other hand, there are more and more people who come again and again and buy precisely "The Original Crete Salve" because they suffer from Psoriasis, and agree that it relieves many of their problems. But Crete Ointment, as it is popularly called, also has other healing effects. A few years ago I was around with our Greek partner Doris, to take some pictures for our website. Along the way, I got a serious cut on my leg because I walked a little too close to some large bushes with sharp thorns. It was bleeding profusely from the 10-12 cm laceration I had sustained, and of course we had neither a bandage nor plaster in the car. But Doris happened to have some Crete Salve with her in the car, which she resolutely picked up and smeared directly on the open wound. "Does it also work like a patch" I asked. "It works if you believe in it," she said dryly and unchallenged, and began to prepare for the next photo session. After a few minutes the bleeding stopped and I could continue where I left off. "It works" I said with some surprise in my voice. "Well, shouldn't we just try to get those pictures taken" she replied with a shake of the head and a hint that I didn't quite believe it. But I do now.

Have a really nice weekend