© Sharon Brown Christopher
Anyone who has been with me over a sustained period of time knows that I am a lover of the color green. The color of my clothes gives my attraction away. But it’s not just clothes. My favorite season is summer with spring running a close second.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
For me it’s more than a whim or even a quirk. It has something to do with vitality and fullness and ripeness and what Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic of the church who lived in the lush Rhine valley of Germany during the early 1100’s, called “viriditas,” or “greening power.”
© Sharon Brown Christopher
For Hildegard, greening power had to do with creativity and the ability to bear fruit that lasts. Greening power is connected to moistness, freshness, germination, growth, expansion, and the force of life itself.
© SharonBrown Christopher
You can imagine my delight when a recent photographic adventure took me to the southeastern corner of the state of Washington and the southwestern corner of Idaho. Named “The Palouse” for the Indian tribe that inhabited the land, The Palouse is known for its rolling hills of wheat, lentil beans, peas, and canola.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
In the summer time, The Palouse is primarily green.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
However, other colors also dot the countryside. The gold of ripened wheat, the brown of fields lying fallow, and the yellow of blooming canola as well as the varied topology of the area and the play of light and shadow add accenting tones and colors.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
The Palouse filled me to overflowing with “viriditas, or greening power. As a result, my heart sings. I trust these images from The Palouse will invite you into the greening power within you.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
Contributed by Sharon Brown Christopher
When were you in the Palouse area?
Pictures are gorgeous.
The green has a rhythm, a flow, the land has become liquid in its creative exuberance.
I am very moved by the undulating tones of green/yellow. The sense of continual change yet in harmony, not abrasion of borders being overtaken.
They made my body sway with a sense of retaining my individuality yet being changed by the surrounding Oneness of Being. Really enjoyed these.