There are times while doing anything that doubt creeps in – business might be slow, negative comments come your way or simply, you ask yourself, “is this what I should be doing?”
This doubt has a way into your home. Did you know? It's true, you may have unwittingly invited this one into your home and worse, into your soap endeavors.
There is a knock on your door and you, being the curious and welcoming-being that you are, answer.
This creature pushes past you, walks right in and makes itself comfortable on your sofa, then asks if there is coffee brewing. This guest asks in that manipulative way some beings have of slithering into another’s graciousness, knowing just by asking that what they ask for will be produced. 
Not wanting to appear rude, you make a pot of coffee.
While you are making coffee for your new guest he asks, “what are you doing today?”
You answer from the the kitchen. “Preparing to make soap this afternoon,” matter-of-fact yet still friendly.
While the coffee brews you sit with your guest and see a sneer creep across his face.
You shrug his odd grin off as just his way, and ask. “What is your name, my mysterious guest?”
“Oh, I’m here to see if you are ready, my dear.” He answers, picking up a bauble from your coffee table, examining it like an antique expert.
“Ready for what?”
“Ready to welcome his highness.” He replies as he sets your glass heirloom back on the table and settles his bottom deeper into your sofa.
Your heart catches, and now you are truly curious, which is the response your guest wants. He can feel your curiosity and that, my dear reader, is what he was after all along.
That is the moment it dawns on you who this creature truly is, as if a veil is lifted, you see his green face.
A memory of the grasshopper landing on your hand the night before surfaces along with the enticement to eat one more cupcake, as if it wouldn’t matter; the feeling to drive just a bit faster and sneak through the yellow light taking up time from those waiting their turns; the idea to take a spoon to your last soap to make it just a bit better but only to muddy the bright colors.
You realize this is the Ambassador of Soap Chaos and Chaos comes with many faces.
This Chaos comes as Loki, the Wild Crouch, the Trickster. Many cultures, many people have known this Reckless Wrecker who have enticed, enchanted to do just a bit more, ignoring their own internal guidance. Forgetting about the Fates who always have a hand in creations.
We in the soap world know this creature, his highness the Reckless Wrecker as the Soap Gremlin. That mysterious thing that knocks that bucket of oil held securely by your deft and skilled hands to the floor; that being that whispers it won’t matter if your measurements are off just a tick; that being that coaxes you to take a chopstick to the beautiful natural soap tops the Muses have gifted you.
All this time you had no idea you invited this gremlin’s ambassador to chaos into your home, you dear gracious hostess.
Now you do.
The next time you think “just a bit more” while you make soap, hesitate and ask, what or who is guiding me?
If you get the chance, take a peek at this amazing book by Brain Froud, "Good Fairies, Bad Fairies"
(I do not receive recompense for your purchase, I just LOVE this book and want to share.)