One: A Kavannah for the Sh'ma

© Trisha Arlin

Listen, there is the One-ness:

The jealous and loving God of the Torah;

The hidden God of the Holy of Holies;
And the clever God of the Talmud;
And the Kingly God of our Siddur.
To this God we will make our offerings.

The Unknowable God of the mystics;
And the rational God of the philosophers;
The haimish God of our grandparents.
To this God we will pray.

The Daddy God of our childhood faith;
And the nonexistent God of our young skepticism;

And now the complicated doubt-filled God-ness of our adult searching.

With  this God, we will have a conversation.

God, the Everything;

God, the Everywhere;

God, the No-thing.

With this God, we will breathe.

God the transcendant;

God the immanent;

God the Is, the Was, the Will Be.

With this God, we are.

We will offer
We will pray
We will talk
We will breathe---
However we approach God,
And even if we don’t,
We are one in the One-ness.
Listen.