This blog is a tool, a way to document the work of Dust and Tribe. It’s how we preserve and learn from the ephemeral moments that bring us together. It’s like pressing a flower between the pages of a heavy book.

And it’s how we, letter by letter, build a legacy. Because without the record, there is no proof that we were ever here. There is no foundation for the work to come.

In the interest of record keeping, I want to acknowledge that it has been nearly four months since our last blog post. This is a critical lapse that reflects the paralysis that I am only now starting to shake off.

In retrospect, there are lots of convenient excuses. A global pandemic hit and with it the realization that the work of Dust and Tribe, predicated as it historically has been on outdoor adventure, was crippled. Time was spent cancelling trips and issuing refunds.

It was a harrowing throw-back to a time in 2015 when, after three years of growing this outdoor community, my family dissolved in a tragically volatile divorce that left me without the the time, energy, or funds to do the work.

We limped through the first Grrrl! trip of 2016, and then the work stopped. I simply could not do it anymore.

A dear friend of mine invited me to lunch in 2018. He asked me to consider putting a trip together for men, just the way we used to do it. It took some convincing, but he kept feeding me and talking to me until it started to make sense.

His care for this work was not lost on me. We had shared some good times on previous D&T adventures, and these were things that he needed to hold onto and build on. But it was his care for me that made the difference.

And, after four months of shock and paralysis, I am waking up now because of a small group of people sacrificing their time to help me, once again, understand the value and mission of Dust and Tribe.

They are reminding me that this work is, at its core, about building community. We see in Islam, our faith-tradition, a mandate to grow and to support one another in doing so, irrespective of circumstances. While outdoor adventure was our primary platform, if God has stripped us of that option, the mandate still exists.

“The outdoors” represents physical space, but for Dust and Tribe the investment was always in the outdoors as metaphor for the wild, surprising nature of our deepest self and the unanticipated moments we find ourselves in. Pandemics, global quarantine, and civil unrest are easily qualified as adventure and growth opportunities. We don’t need to go camping to see this.

The small community that this work has built is coming back to nurture the work. It’s a remarkable cycle that will take Dust and Tribe into new and exciting places, God willing. One of those places is no further than your desktop.

We are building out Campfire, our email group and virtual gathering place for conversation and collaboration. We’ve started our book club, a humble initiative, but this is a time for humility. We will soon be rolling out more exciting programs that we pray will put us all back on the path of adventure and growth, insha Allah.

Stay tuned and join us in praying that we all remain steadfast in capitalizing on the opportunities that God has created for us.

Outside or in.

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