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22 reviews for:
Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder's Meditations on Hope and Courage
Steven Charleston
4.24 AVERAGE
22 reviews for:
Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder's Meditations on Hope and Courage
Steven Charleston
4.24 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Balm to the soul
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I truly needed the boost of hope and courage that reading Steven Charleston’s Ladder to the Light gave me this past month. This is one powerful little book. Charleston, a retired Episcopal priest and bishop, is also an elder of the Choctaw Nation and a practitioner of Zen meditation. He leaves interpretation open for the phrase “the Spirit” so that as many people as possible feel at home in his writing, saying, “theological debates are for another day.” He throws those doors open wide and invites readers “to interpret the nature and meaning of the Spirit for themselves.”
This book is radical in its inclusion and unity without falling into syncretism, and avoids the trap of offering spiritual platitudes and nothing more. Fellow leftists will appreciate its non-hierarchical, anti-private property ideals and its focus on kinship and ethical relationships, reciprocity, and seeing one’s community as an extended family.
I loved Charleston’s points about how hierarchies and expectations of conformity get in the way of community and relationship. He discusses the disorganized religion (rather than hierarchical) of his Choctaw faith, and how its lack of organization keeps the focus on shared hopes that aren’t “weighed down by the demand for conformity.” Faith is personal; vision is communal.
“If we are ever to find unity in our diversity, it will not be through status, but through relationship.”
Charleston calls all of us to think and act together, “because we are going to need one another more than ever in the days to come.” He addresses politics and the grave situation that we’re currently in; specifically, the loss of trust in the system, and leaders who choose not to be the voice of the people they represent. He stresses that mutual respect has to be at the core of a nation.
This is the kind of book that is chock-full of quotations you want to remember. I wanted to memorize them, share them on social media, share them with loved ones. I feel like the book is timeless, like I could read it again and again, and each time it will reach me in a different way.
A few days before I picked up Ladder to the Light, we lost someone very dear to us to COVID. Charleston’s beautiful words below brought me great deal of comfort while I was still reeling. I hope you find solace in them, too.
"We write our names on the sky each time we do an act of kindness. We say 'I am here' to the universe, imprinting our time among the glittering lights of creation, in the small spaces between lives. There exist the joyous markers of our passing, our moments of love and loss, our quiet hours of thought and deep reflection. 'I am here,' we announce to the heavens. Whatever happens, we have left our names on the hearts of those with whom we have shared the sun. Our memories echo down the valley of time, still heard long after we have made the journey home."