Reflection: spiritual reading/lectio divina

The idea of reading holy texts, or of reading the contemplative writings of others, and reflecting upon them is among the oldest contemplative traditions. I am recommending a further, powerful step in writing down your reflections--in a journal, in a blog.
Unlike many of the exercises in this blog this is not a five minute practice, but it is possible to do five or ten minutes of reading and come back to that several times during a day. I often find that something that I read in the morning pops into my head during my commute and I can ruminate about it, but putting the reflection in written form takes some time, and I often come back to it again several times for editing and additions.

Reading poetry is a wonderful spiritual practice in itself, but spiritual reading of poetry can take you even deeper. I invite you to take a look at a process of spiritual reading of poetry :
I abbreviate it here.
1. Breathe deeply for a couple of minutes.
2. Read slowly, aloud if possible--linger over words & phrases. (If doing this as a group, take turns reading aloud, with different readers giving different voice and emphasis.)
3. Look and listen for nuance and detail.
4. Continue to read for the amount of time you've allotted.
5. Give thanks and sit in silence, waiting to hear what else might speak to you from this reading.
6. Record your reflections in your journal.
7. Pick one gleaning to carry with you for the day.

Reflect upon this poem by Sufi poet Rumi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky from the anthology, Love Poems from God.

HEY

The grass beneath a tree is content
and silent.

A squirrel holds an acorn in its praying hands,
offering thanks, it looks like.

The nut tastes sweet; I bet the prayer spiced
it up somehow.

The broken shells fall on the grass,
and the grass looks up
and says,
"Hey."

And the squirrel looks down
and says,

"Hey."

I have been saying "Hey" lately too,
to God.

Formalities just weren't
working.

Read the poem aloud, as well as silently. How does this poem speak to you? What phrases stay with you the first time? What new things do you notice the second time? Write your thoughts.

Vary the emphasis and inflection, particularly on the the word "Hey." Is it a tone of wonder, intrusion, friendliness, irritation, or something else? How does that change the meaning of the poem?

Check out the list of poetry links to the right for both daily written and audio poems.