Hear, O Israel: the Lord is one. (Deut 6:4). Like a tree is one: so many leaves above, so many roots below, yet the tree is one. So creation in all its variety expresses the oneness of God over and over again. Israel experienced this oneness every morning and every evening when it prayed the Shema. When Rome, the most powerful empire on earth, outlawed the Torah, Rabbi Akiva kept teaching it, and for this he was executed at the very hour of this prayer. The empire took his life but could not take God's oneness from his lips; his soul departed on the word one. When a scribe asked which commandment was the greatest, Jesus returned to the Shema: the Lord is one.

I take a breath and say yes to the grace of experiencing the oneness of God in me.