"Good People,
Most royal greening verdancy,
rooted in the sun,
you shine with radiant light.
In this circle of earthly existence
you shine
so finely,
it surpasses understanding.
God hugs you.
You are encircled
by the arms
of the mystery of God."
~Hildegard of Bingen

Seduction. That is the word that came to my mind as I have been watching the slowly greening earth. Along our freeways,the grassy area on my right can be dull brown while on the other side young green blades are being lured up through the soil. The warmth of the sun is seducing this dullness, coaxing the greenness toward its fullness.

This morning I stood for some time looking at the patches of brown and gray in our backyard garden. Then I saw the seduction happening right before my eyes. Pale green shoots, still sleepy from winter, were being enticed to show themselves in the morning light. Accompanied now by the early morning song of robin and cardinal, these early spring risers opened their fragile leaves upward, outward.

Seduction: the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire. Spring is about seduction…..giving into the exciting hope of birth, growth, promise of new life. Spring is about all that is meant to be green coming into its fullness, its authentic self. There is an excitement of possibility that is palpable in the air as the geese honk their way back home, as the buds of the trees reach for what is yet to be….green.

And what about we humans? How are we being seduced in these warming days to the fullness of green within us? Hildegard of Bingen, that medieval mystic who was truly a renaissance woman….scholar, leader, teacher, artist, musician, composer…..often called humanity 'green'. She wasn't speaking about being ecologically sound. She was talking about humans coming into their fullness, being influenced by the exciting hope and desire to grow into all the Holy means for us.

Spring is here. The sun is shining. It is time to get green!