The poet, composer, mystic, and saint Hildegard von Bingen once described a force she called viriditas — the greening power of the soul. It’s the way life insists on blooming. The way the earth cracks open to make room for tiny, stubborn shoots of green. The way moss curls itself over stone, the way ivy winds up brick walls, the way even the driest deserts can remember how to flower. For Hildegard, this divine greening wasn’t just a seasonal event — it was a holy force, a vitality that flows through all things, and it was her favorite metaphor for God.
I think of that word, viriditas, and how it mirrors the way recovery moves through us. Because recovery is its own kind of greening. It’s the way we insist on blooming after seasons of drought and neglect. It’s the way our hearts crack open to make room for all that was once buried — shame, grief, anger, longing — and how those buried things, when given enough light and tenderness, can come to life again.
Recovery isn’t just about stopping a behavior. It’s about what starts growing in the space that’s been cleared. It’s about finding out that we can hold the things we once tried to numb away. That we can stay present with them. That we can bring them water and sunshine and soft, open hands. That we can coax the tiny, stubborn shoots to rise.
But let’s not romanticize it too much. Because the greening doesn’t come easy. The first shoots are tender. The first buds, fragile. And the ground that’s been cracked open to make room for new life can be raw, achy, sensitive to the elements. There’s a reason why early recovery can feel like too much; like everything is too bright, too loud, too real. When we first begin to wake up — to ourselves, to our lives, to the ways we’ve been hiding — it can feel like the whole world is pressing in, and we’re not yet strong enough to hold it all.
But that’s the thing about viriditas. It’s not a force that comes and goes. It’s always moving through us, always inviting us to green, to rise, to reclaim. And it doesn’t ask for perfection. It just asks for willingness. Willingness to crack open. Willingness to be soft. Willingness to let the water flow through the places that have long been dry.
In recovery, we learn to keep tending to the new life that’s growing within us. We learn to protect it, to nurture it, to make space for it to thrive. We learn that the greening isn’t a one-time event — it’s a daily practice. It’s the way we choose to feed ourselves, body and soul. It’s the way we rest, the way we say no to what drains us and yes to what brings us alive. It’s the way we learn to trust our own cycles of growth and dormancy, to honor the seasons of our lives without rushing them.
Hildegard said that viriditas was the greening power of God — a divine aliveness that flows through all things, through all beings, through all time. And in recovery, we come to know that aliveness in a new way. We come to trust that life still flows through us, even when we feel dried out, even when the world feels barren and gray. We come to know that our greening is not a fluke, not a one-time miracle, but a force that insists on moving through us, on finding us, on bringing us back to life over and over again.
So, what would it look like to honor the greening in your life right now? What would it look like to treat yourself as the garden you are — to water the places that are thirsty, to prune back what is overgrown, to make room for new shoots to rise?
Because the world may tell us that recovery is just about what we let go of, what we stop doing, what we pull out by the roots. But the truth is, recovery is about what we choose to plant, what we choose to tend to, what we choose to bring to life. It’s about finding that divine greening power within ourselves and letting it rise, inch by inch, day by day, season by season.
Viriditas. The divine greening force. The way the earth remembers how to bloom, even after a long, hard winter. The way we remember how to come back to life. Again and again and again.
THIRSTY FOR WONDER: at The Sober Curator, led by Anne Marie Cribben—a passionate recovery coach and spiritual companion based in Washington, DC—offers 1:1 coaching, spiritual guidance, and recovery support rooted in compassion and empowerment. As the creator of The Wellspring: A Celtic Recovery Journey, Anne Marie blends the Celtic calendar with sobriety, connecting participants to ancient wisdom and the rhythms of nature.
A fierce advocate for sobriety as liberation and self-love, she challenges the targeted marketing of alcohol to women and champions authentic, joyful living. Her work goes beyond addiction recovery, fostering a life of vibrancy, purpose, and connection.
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