FIELD REPORT/BRIEF COMMUNICATION    

May 2023. Christian Journal for Global Health 10(1) 

Dust: a meditation from Afghanistan 
M Shawn Morehead a  

a MD, MPH, Founding Program Director, Gadsden Regional Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, 
Alabama, USA  

 
“… for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.”    Psalm 103:14 

 
On one particular morning from the rooftop 

of our house in Kabul, I noticed the dust. Dust in 
Afghanistan is familiar and constant; a companion 
on all roads and ruins, obscuring and coating, a 
benign frustration, and a mortal hazard. Daily, I 
watched the dust as symbolic reminder of the 
complexities of this war-torn land and its proud 
people.  

Dust here comes in various hues of red and 
brown, sparking images of decades enduring spilt 
blood across a dying landscape. Death has never 
been far from the daily consciousness of any 
dweller in this land; an ever-unspoken reminder of 
the harsh realities of this place. Personally, I know 
little of it apart from history books, and the 
memories of those who have spoken about it.  

However, I have seen the eyes of a longing 
generation; one that would step over long-drawn 
boundary lines to glimpse an unknown, imperfect, 
yet hopeful future. I would do my best to scale that 
wall with them, guide them down a narrower path; 
open the gate so they too might enter in. They are 
proud, loving, hospitable, arrogant, full of life, full 
of fear, just as we are. There exists little to 
distinguish our dust from theirs save our 
understanding of He who has formed us and why. 
He remembers that we, as they, are all dust and will 
one day return to our roots. Yet we will not stay; 
we are and will be changed, resurrected, made new. 
So should they. 

 
 

Submitted 23 April 2023, Accepted 2 May 2023, Published May 2023 
 
Competing Interests: None declared.     
 
Correspondence: Dr. M Shawn Morehead, Gadsden, AL, USA shawnmorehead@gmail.com              

 
Cite this article as: Morehead MS. Dust: a meditation. May 2023; 10(1):53. 
https://doi.org/10.15566/cjgh.v10i1.767       
 
© Author. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, 
provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   

 

mailto:shawnmorehead@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.15566/cjgh.v10i1.767
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