11/15/2025
First time PONDR lands in Bad Axe, Michigan.
Set up for tomorrow’s sold out wellness retreat at The treehouse is complete. PONDR sauna’s last visit was also tree related.
Fun fact: Treehouse Yoga & Wellness resides in the old Hickby’s Pharmacy.
Historical Note: The son of the owner, Greg Higby, worked in his father’s Bad Axe drugstore in the late 1970s before becoming a distinguished historian and the Executive Director of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.
This transformation from a place of traditional medicine (a pharmacy) to a place of holistic wellness (a yoga studio) is a very compelling story.
Here’s some fun information on the meaning behind: Rx
The symbol “Rx” is a key part of the pharmacy and medical world, and its origin is quite fascinating.
The symbol Rx comes from an abbreviation of the Latin word “recipe,” which means “to take” or “take thou.”
Here’s a quick breakdown of its history:
* A Doctor’s Instruction: Hundreds of years ago, when a doctor wrote a prescription, they would begin it with “Recipe” as a direct instruction to the apothecary (the pharmacist) and the patient. It was essentially the heading of the prescription, meaning “Take the following ingredients...”
* The Abbreviation: Over time, this word was abbreviated for simplicity. Scribes and physicians began using the symbol ℞—a capital ‘R’ with a crossed leg. This symbol was the accepted shorthand for “recipe.”
* Modern Symbol: Today, that symbol has been simplified in common use to “Rx.” It has evolved from being just the first word of a prescription to representing the entire concept of prescribed medicine, prescriptions, and the pharmacies that dispense them.
While there are other less common theories linking it to the Roman god Jupiter or the Egyptian Eye of Horus, the Latin origin is the most direct and widely accepted explanation.
