The Marriage of Green & Truth
Even though I’ve lived in California for over a decade now, I continue to be amazed at the transformation even the smallest amount of rain creates. Seemingly overnight, formerly brown hills spring to lush new life, and in the morning you awake to discover them transformed.
On my drive to San Francisco this morning, the landscape is a gorgeous, luminous green. Over the last few days, we’ve had torrential downpours. And more are predicted for later today. Right now, though, the sky is crystalline blue. As I drive through the Open Space Preserve that borders I-280, the the hills are green, green, green and even the air seems to glisten, thanks to that abundant rain. So beautiful. It makes my heart sing a little in gratitude.
Earlier this morning, I spent some time reading Angeles Arrien’s book, Living in Gratitude, a monthly guide to exploring and cultivating the art of gratitude. This month’s entry, fittingly, is about the greening of the world and, along with it, our spirits as well. She writes:
“March stands at the cusp of winter and spring. With the arrival of the vernal equinox around the 21st of the month, we enter the season when new life bursts into being with exuberance and vigor. In calendars preceding our current one, the new year began in March, because that was when winter’s starkness gave way to tiny buds, emerging green leaves, blossoming trees, and opening flowers.
Hildegard von Bingen referred to this time as veriditas, the true greening of ourselves and nature. Those things that have been gestating and incubating in winter reveal themselves in spring, and it is during this bourgeoning time that nature mirrors back to us new possibilities and the exaltation of life. The poet George Herbert, after experiencing a period of depression, or spiritual wasteland, wrote, ‘Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart could have recovered greenness?’”
Recovered greenness, literal and metaphorical, is certainly what I’m witnessing on this lovely early morning drive.
And yet. There are other, more troubling things, to bear witness to as well. As I make this drive of 45 miles or so from San Jose to San Francisco, I’m also struck by the growing number of tents and makeshift encampments I see along the road, mile after mile. There seem to be more now than ever before.
Of course I’ve been aware of the problem of homelessness within our community for some time now. The San Francisco Bay area has the dubious distinction of being both the wealthiest region in the country and having the largest homeless population in the U.S.
Right now, though, my thoughts are on the immediate experience of the people living in these makeshift tents and shelters. What must it be like to be living outdoors in the midst of the torrential rainstorms we’ve been having the last week or so? In some cases, the shelters I catch glimpses of as a speed by on the freeway seem to be little more than a plastic tarp thrown over the branch of a tree.
The rain that is bringing forth so much vitality and growth, is also causing even more suffering for an already distressed population. I’ve often thought about how to help the homeless population, but to be honest, have felt overwhelmed and ineffectual in the face of the enormity of the problem.
In Living in Gratitude, Angeles Arrien ties the practice of compassionate service to the renewal and ‘regreening’ we experience in March.
“This,” she writes, “is a good time to think about the areas of your life where you want to become a better person in order to help others in more impactful ways.
One of the best set of practices for becoming a better person through cultivating compassionate service comes from Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush in their book, Compassion in Action: Setting Out on a Path of Service. In this book, we are advised to:
be brave
start small
use what you’ve got
do something you enjoy
don’t overcommit
We must be discerning when we move forward with any new intention - being attentive to that which is before us and seeking insights into its meaning. Discernment carries the same requirements as Dass and Bush’s five tenets. We need to summon the courage to begin a new phase in our growth; then we can start with something we are confident we can achieve. By taking one deliberate step each day, we avoid recklessness and can build upon those beneficial traits we have already developed in ourselves.”
Excellent advice. I see now that the real focus should be here - starting small and using whatever I have - rather than giving up in despair over the enormity of the problem One deliberate step each day, and as I walk the path, it’s okay to rejoice in the beauty.
One last quote on that subject from Living in Gratitude:
“Because March moves us from barren winter to verdant spring, the experience of gratitude now wells up within us more easily and often. In Brian Boyd’s Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Nabokov beautifully describes this experience: ‘This is ecstasy, and behind the ecstasy is something else, which is hard to explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love. A sense of oneness with sun and stone. A thrill of gratitude.’
Notice during this month of March what ignites the ‘thrill of gratitude’ in your life. When we couple this natural upwelling with conscious acts of compassionate service, our experience of gratitude is magnified a hundredfold. During this season of veriditas, we experience the greening of ourselves and the natural world.”
Yes, that's it. The greening of the world coupled with the greening of my spirit. The marriage of green and truth.
Notes:
- There are a number of organizations that work to end homelessness in Silicon Valley. Homefirst is one of the most effective.
- Title inspired by this definition of Veriditas: The Marriage of Green & Truth
- Photo: Northern California Hills, February 12, 2011, P. Doyle