We need to honor our commitments.

We also need to refine our sense of which commitments are worth establishing in the first place.

Dust and Tribe is proud to be doing work alongside what may be the most responsible community on earth. Muslims set a premium on the care of their families, the pursuit of higher education, and working toward professional excellence. This triad of family, education, and hard work can everywhere be found among the Islamic communities of North America.

And, for the observant, all of this falls under the umbrella of a religious life that advocates for the maintenance of family ties, the acquisition of knowledge, and striving for excellence in all things. Coupled with the encouragement to maintain our humility as we struggle against the wants and impulses of our confounding ego, many of us may not see an opportunity to set priorities that are personally rewarding.

A Waste of Time?

We become dismissive of recreational pursuits, coming to see such things as superfluous and distracting, a waste of time and resources that could be better invested in the triad. What value is there, really, in sleeping on the dirt, climbing rocks, paddling a waterway, or strapping on a pack and walking for miles?

As time goes on and we find ourselves bitter and bloated, our waistlines expanding in response to the exhaustion of caring about everything but ourselves, we might stop to consider the word recreation.

To create anew.

Dust and Tribe gets people outside. Outside in the sense of getting people outdoors is only one facet of our mission. We also want to see you outside of your comfort zone, outside of the triad, outside of the expectations that you and others have about your essential self.

To create anew is to approach everything we think we understand with a transformed perspective. This cannot be accomplished until we are outside. We need to see things from a different angle. We need to spend time with people who are also ready to make deep personal shifts. We need to lend and borrow encouragement from our adventure partners, building the relationships that will help us both on and off the trail.

It’s never about the rocks or the kayaks or the trees or any of the other wondrous miracles encountered over the course of a Dust and Tribe outing.

It’s about how these things change us. It’s about apprehending God’s lessons for us through created phenomena. It’s about finding the untapped reservoirs of passion and vigor lying dormant within all of us.

A Change of Heart

There are moments when all of this becomes crystal clear for you, our participants. And when that happens, you immediately place your deposit to hold your spot on one of our upcoming events.

But then something changes.

In the last two years, Dust and Tribe has refunded over $12,000 in deposits. That’s a number we need to talk about.

We mean that literally. Starting in 2024, Dust and Tribe will not issue anymore refunds until we have a conversation.

In the end, virtually every request for a refund is about a shift in priorities. We aren’t questioning that and we have no intention of making any judgments as to the legitimacy of the request. You’ll get your money.

But we want to learn more about how our community is setting priorities. What is pulling people away from an investment in themselves? What tempered the thrill of booking the adventure? What was true in that moment that is no longer true at the point of cancellation?

We want our community to remain accountable to themselves. A conversation may bring a reconsideration as we hear ourselves prioritize everything except recreation, renewal, refreshment, and restoration.

A Sense of Purpose

We can say with absolute conviction that our time outside and the community established through this work inspires us to invest ever more deeply in the triad of family care, education, and work. In the first place, we find that recreation replenishes us, giving us back the energy to do the things that need to be done. More importantly, the freshened perspective that comes from getting outside refines our sense of purpose: we have a deeper awareness of why we do the things we do.

That understanding allows us to recalibrate our priorities and to delegate those responsibilities that we no longer see as exclusively ours to honor. We arrive at a balance that only becomes possible once we make the choice to get outside and see exactly how imbalanced we are.

These conversations might be awkward. They could be difficult. We’re not looking forward to getting these calls.

But we’ve also spent enough time on the trail to know that the hill ahead of us, as taxing as it will be to climb, may very well bring us to a place of ecstatic vision. These conversations could be amazing.

We’ll find out together.

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