I am exploring 12 words this year - one every month to savour. You can think of each blog post in this series as a mini-guide, connected to the season and full of both the magical & the practical. This month, explore the word VIRIDITAS.

Five years ago, a massive infill was built next to our 112 year old home.

My daughter lost the view from her large west-facing bedroom window.

Instead of looking out at the green canopy of the neighbourhood, she faced a stark white stucco wall.

When she left home later that year, I transformed her bedroom into my studio - relishing the chance to have a room of my own. I hadn’t had one since my twenties.

I placed my desk in front of the windows. But the view of the white stucco wall didn’t inspire me.

In fact, I noticed that I became increasingly irritated when I looked at it. The wall reminded me of my neighbourhood’s changing landscape - where old, healthy trees were felled and old houses replaced by newer, pricier ones.

So I moved my desk, seeking inspiration from my vibrant bulletin board.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

A few days later, I realized what I needed.

I needed green.

I needed the lushest, greenest plant I could find that would grow in low light conditions.

Enter Monstera deliciosa.

The impact of having this large green plant beside me has been profound.

I knew about all the research on the restorative power of visible greenery. I guess I just never expected to feel the impact so profoundly.

In the 12th Century, abbess, healer, mystic & rebel Hildegard von Bingen would say that it is the greening power of nature that impacted me deeply.

She called this greening life force viriditas—signifying vitality, life force, lushness, and growth. It permeates both nature and ourselves.

I invite you this month to contemplate the concept of viriditas. How can we embrace this greening energy in our lives, especially in a world where it is increasingly threatened?

If you want to learn more about Hildegard and her vision of viriditas - and its meaning for you today - join me and my friend the Rev. Danáe Ashley for an online Spring Mini-Retreat on Saturday, April 5.

Reflections on Viriditas

Viriditas is the natural driving force toward healing and wholeness, the vital power that sustains all life's greenness.
*-Hildegard von Bingen*

Springing

Last summer’s grass still stands in the field,
dry and fringe-like. It shushes against my thighs
as I walk. How is it still upright? After the weight
of last year’s snow? How has it not fallen, decayed?

Though I can break the brittle stems in my fingers,
it bends in the wind, more resilient than I could imagine.

What inside me is dead, yet still standing?
What old thoughts, their seeds long gone,
are filling the fields of imagination?

The new grass already is emerging into spring.
Soft. Deep green. Unable to be bent or broken,
its scent sweet and sharp in the nose.

Let me find in me this freshness, this new growth,
this willingness to push up through what’s dead.
Let me roll in it like a dog, till I come up stained green—
green thoughts. Green words. Green wonder.
Green learning what it is to be green.

-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.

-Hildegard von Bingen

Last night after sunset
I put my flower children to bed,
covered their cheery pink faces
with blankets, towels, and sheets,

said, "Goodnight, stay warm,
don't let the frost-bugs bite,"
hoping, when I arose next day,
that the long cold night
had not nipped their spring noses
and frightened them to death.

How carefully I care
for the small flower garden,
protecting all I can from harm.
Yet, when the green shoots
of my own inner growth
push their way out,
I seem to leave all to chance
and little to care.

I wonder why.

-Joyce Rupp

Prompts for deeper reflection

What is your relationship to viriditas?

Take some time to reflect on these questions.

How can you bring the flow of greening life energy into your being?
In what ways do you nurture the seeds of growth and renewal within your being?
Consider aspects of your life where you feel dry, stagnant or dormant. How might you awaken the greening power within those areas?
How does your connection to nature influence the greening power within you?
How do you see viriditas expressed or threatened on Earth today?
What are you going to do to protect & nurture Earth’s viriditas and your own?

A Simple Practice

Viriditas Around & Within

Step outside, take off your shoes, and feel the Earth under your feet.
Sit or stand near some trees, flowers, or plants.
Notice all the different shades of green around you.
Breathe in nature’s viriditas.
Now, allow your breath to bring you into your body. You may want to close your eyes or soften your gaze.
Bring your awareness to your heart space.
Contemplate the following:
Where is viriditas within me?
Where do I feel alive and growing inside?
What is growing, sprouting, budding within?
Sense the connection between Earth’s viriditas and the quality of your own inner viriditas.
Offer thanks for the places of tender greening around and within.

A Green Scent

Petitgrain, with its green, citrusy aroma, is nature's breath of fresh air, awakening the senses and revitalizing the spirit.

Petitgrain essential oil is derived from the leaves and twigs of the bitter orange tree. Its scent is reminiscent of fresh, green foliage with hints of citrus. The aroma carries a crisp, green quality, evoking images of lush foliage and vibrant growth, making it an invigorating and refreshing scent.

To learn more about petitgrain essential oil, read the blog post: A Scent for Spring