Called to Thrive…
“For still there are so many things that I have never seen; in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” —J.R.R. Tolkien
Spring green! Depending on where you live, my favorite color is just beginning to announce herself in tender shoots or unfurling new leaves or, conversely, is already giving way to a deeper green.
Yet it was the showy wisteria that caught my eye over the weekend. Walking by a neighborhood park, I was delighted to find the wisteria thriving despite the clearing of so much of it last year.
Like the stories of trees and plants thought killed in the ice storm in Austin last month sprouting new buds and leaves, the wisteria is heeding the call to thrive that spring heralds. Hildegard of Bingen called this greening essence of the Divine viriditas. While with us all the time, the season of spring feels like a divine shout to pay attention and make the most of this energy accessible to all. Even in our waning days, we can call upon this energy.
Author Christine Valters Paintner says “We often experience our life as a kind of wandering through the desert, experiencing the spareness of the landscape.” She goes on to quote the prophet Isaiah in speaking about the blossoming of the desert and notes in her book Illuminating the Way:
“This abundant blossoming is the provenance of viriditas. We are called to wander through the desert tending to the abundant gifts of viriditas, the creative life-giving force at the heart of everything alive. Hildegard’s wisdom is for living a life that is fruitful and green and overflowing with verdancy. She calls us to look for fecundity in barren places.”
Declare Who You Are
“Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.”
—St. Hildegard of Bingen
A Green Tree
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”
–Lois Lowry
Greening Force
O most honored Greening Force.
You who roots in the Sun;
You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel
that earthly excellence fails to comprehend.
You are enfolded in the weaving of divine mysteries.
You redden like the dawn.
And you burn: flame of the Sun.
—Hildegard von Bingen, Viriditas. Source: Hildegarden.com
