Our Best Defense is Our Joy

Finding Spiritual Renewal in Times of Uncertainty

This past weekend, my family and I joined a retreat for Black Muslim families—a gathering that has become an anchor in our lives for three years running. Each year, we travel to a different state across the country to join with other families who understand the unique intersection of our identities, our faith, and our commitment to community.

There's something profound about getting up before sunrise, gathering in the pre-dawn darkness to pray and meditate under the stars until the sun breaks the horizon. Those liminal hours—when the world is quiet and the sky transitions from darkness to light—create space for a kind of clarity that's hard to find in our daily lives. Then our days unfold with expert workshops, deep reflective conversations, healing hikes through nature, and quiet floats on the lake. Spiritually moving. Psychologically opening.

This year, I served as a volunteer for the event. Being in service to my community through these transformative moments was enlivening in a way I hadn't anticipated. There's a particular kind of joy that comes from supporting another person's growth—from holding space, facilitating connection, and witnessing breakthroughs. I left the retreat with clarity. Grounding. Renewal. Even though I probably slept a total of 12 hours across those three days, I returned home refreshed—not physically, but spiritually refreshed in a way that goes deeper than rest.

Choosing Joy as Resistance

We're living in a time where fear has become a tool of repression. Things we value—our communities, our rights, our very sense of safety—are being attacked. Livelihoods and whole industries are being crushed and made to disappear. The news cycle is relentless. The threats feel constant. It would be easy to let fear become our default state.

But I've come to believe something with my whole heart: Our best defense is our joy. Our peace. Our hope. And our willingness to stay in action around fulfilling that hope.

This isn't about toxic positivity or pretending everything is fine. It's about understanding that joy is a form of resistance. Peace is a strategy. Hope is fuel for action. When systems of oppression try to drain us of our humanity, reclaiming our capacity for joy is a radical act.

Redefining Resilience

We often talk about resilience as the ability to bounce back—to get knocked down and get back up. And yes, that's part of it. But I've been thinking about resilience differently lately.

Resilience isn't only measured by how many times you get back up when knocked down. It's built by strengthening yourself where you stand and cultivating constant growth—so you rise beyond the reach of what tried to break you.

It's about doing the inner work now, in this moment, so that when challenges come—and they will come—you're not starting from a depleted place. You're starting from a foundation of wholeness, clarity, and power.

The Shift: Learning to Listen Again

Something shifted for me recently. I stopped moving long enough to actually listen.

For years, I've been in motion—growing the business, serving clients, resolving conflicts, building programs. All worthy work. All valuable. And I'm genuinely grateful that it's still part of my journey. But somewhere in the constant doing, I realized I had stopped truly listening. Not just to others, but to what's emerging in this moment. To what wants to come through me. To what I'm being called toward.

When I finally created space to listen, I started hearing things I couldn't access before. A deeper calling. A clearer purpose. An understanding that this moment in history is asking something different of me—of all of us.

Answering a New Call

Right now, I'm being called to do something different.

It's a call to help restore what's been eroded—the spirit, the sense of self, the inner knowing that so many of us have lost touch with in the chaos of survival mode. To help people fortify themselves so completely that they can walk through this fire with grace, power, and unshakeable clarity.

This isn't about teaching people how to cope. Coping implies just getting through, just surviving. What I want for us is so much more than that.

I want us to rise. More powerfully. More clearly. Unstoppably.

The Between the Lines Series

That's why I'm inviting you to join me for Between the Lines.

Between the Lines is a free gathering where we explore the insights, ideas, and innovations that don't fit neatly into categories—because the most interesting conversations happen in the spaces between.

Over the next couple of months, I'm convening the mentors, colleagues, and field experts who've shaped my own evolution—practitioners who know how to integrate practical strategy with emotional and energetic truth. These are people who understand that we can't separate the personal from the professional, the spiritual from the strategic, the inner work from the outer impact.

Through rotating formats—roundtables, expert conversations, fishbowl discussions, and collaborative sessions—we bring together people who are doing compelling work in their fields. This isn't about one-way knowledge transfer; it's about creating room for exchange, questions, and the kind of learning that happens when curious people connect.

We're coming together to offer you tangible tools. Not tools for coping. Tools for rising.

An Upcoming Conversation: Dr. Cammy

Our upcoming conversation is with Dr. Cammy, an esteemed trauma therapist and best-selling author. I chose to have her join us because if we're not already, we need to be able to properly name what we are seeing and experiencing right now.

This moment—this particular convergence of political, social, economic, and cultural upheaval—has an impact on our psyche. Our emotions. Our sense of self. Our motivation. What we're able to take in and give out and offer to the world.

Many of us are carrying trauma we haven't named. We're experiencing collective grief we haven't processed. We're navigating uncertainty without the tools to ground ourselves in the midst of it.

I don't know anyone better equipped than Dr. Cammy to help us process and create tools to move through this type of uncertainty with valid, evidence-based interventions that are also aligned with our individual lifestyles, approaches, worldviews, and practices. She understands that healing isn't one-size-fits-all. That we need frameworks that honor our full humanity.

What I Want for Us

I want us to heal.

I want for us to find inspiration in this moment—not despite the difficulty, but through engaging with it consciously and purposefully.

This is for our neighbors who are being taken and separated. For our colleagues who have been let go. For our friends who are struggling. For us, who are trying to chart a new path after being abandoned and attacked.

I want for us a vision that inspires us forward—so we're not only just doing what we got to do (which we will do anyway because we're survivors), but walking in bounty and joy and enlivenment. Living with purpose and presence. Moving with intention and power.

Going Deeper

To get there, we must get underneath what is.

We must look at the roots of our responses, our patterns, our inherited trauma, and our conditioning. We must understand how this moment is affecting us—not just intellectually, but emotionally, spiritually, and somatically. Only then can we do the work of transformation that will allow us to rise.

At Hyphens & Spaces, we believe that knowledge grows when it's shared, and communities thrive when we invest in each other. Between the Lines reflects our commitment to making expertise accessible, fostering genuine connection, and serving as a resource for the people and organizations we care about. By creating these open spaces for dialogue, we're not just facilitating conversations—we're building a network of curious minds who learn from and support one another.

This is an invitation to do that deeper work together. To create a community around healing. To share tools that actually work. To support each other in becoming the most grounded, clear, and powerful versions of ourselves.

Join Us

Whether you're seeking fresh perspectives, looking to contribute your own insights, or simply want to be part of a community that values thoughtful exchange, there's a place for you here.

Join us monthly for conversations that inform, challenge, inspire, and remind us that we're better together.

More details are coming soon about our upcoming Between the Lines conversation with Dr. Cammy. I hope you'll join us.

In the meantime, I encourage you to find your own moments of spiritual renewal. To protect your joy fiercely. To remember that in times of chaos, our peace is both a gift to ourselves and a contribution to collective healing.

Our best defense is our joy. Let's claim it.

In Partnership,

Samira Abdul-Karim Chief Executive Officer & Principal Consultant Hyphens and Spaces www.hyphensandspaces.com