Welcome to Season 3: Nurturing Our Spirits, Cultivating Hope with Francisco Burgos

Season 3 is here! As we begin to explore the practices that enrich our connections to ourselves and to each other, Dwight and Francisco share what's been spiritually nurturing them, their relationships to community, and their understandings of radical hope.

Read the transcript of this episode.

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Dwight Dunston, host of The Seed, is a West Philly-based facilitator, hip-hop artist, educator, and activist who has brought his creativity, care, and compassion to schools, community centers, retirement homes, festivals, and stadiums all over the country and internationally. His love of people and his belief that our stories and histories hold the key to our healing and wholeness has inspired him to design unique workshops, classes, and programs that support individuals to feel more rooted and heart-opened to themselves and to others.

Francisco Burgos is the executive director of Pendle Hill. Francisco comes to Pendle Hill from the Center for Community Initiatives at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. He was born in Santo Domingo, but identifies as an internationalist. Francisco was a poet, an educator, a father, and as a self described dreamer whose visions are grounded in reality.

The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/

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The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit-led learning, retreat, and community. We’re located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape people.

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This project is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund.

Transcript

Francisco Burgos  0:08  

There are so many things here that that we are dancing with that make me so happy...

Dwight Dunston  0:15  

You’re listening to The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, a Pendle Hill podcast where Quakers and other seekers come together to explore visions of the world that is growing up through the cracks of our broken systems. I'm your host, Dwight Dunston. Last season, we explored the Quaker testimony of integrity, and our guests shared stories and learnings of how this testimony showed up in their life and the work they do in the world.

This season, we're exploring the practices that enrich our connections to ourselves and to each other. How do we cultivate relationships in spiritual community? How do these relationships and practices support our work for liberation and justice and transform our sense of what is possible? 

We begin Season Three in conversation with Francisco Burgos, the executive director of Pendle Hill. If you're new here, or just tuning in, Pendle Hill is a Quaker center, open to all, for Spirit-led learning, retreat and community. We're located in Wallingford, PA, on the traditional territory of the Lenni Lenape people. 

Francisco Burgos is the executive director of Pendle Hill. Francisco comes to Pendle Hill from the Center for Community Initiatives at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. He was born in Santo Domingo, but identifies as an internationalist. Francisco is a poet, educator, father, and a self-described dreamer whose visions are grounded in reality. In this opening conversation, Francisco and I talk about our evolving understandings of radical hope, practices that ground us, and, of course, planting seeds.

Francisco, we are back. 

Francisco Burgos  2:33  

Season Three!

Dwight Dunston  2:34  

I almost brought to you a cake, you know, with a three on top. Not quite three years old, but the third season.

Francisco Burgos  2:40  

I think that we need to get into the practice of celebrating each season as if they are a full year.

Dwight Dunston  2:46  

I agree. I agree. Because as you know, there's so much love and energy and work that goes into these projects. You know, maybe maybe we'll start that for season four.

Francisco Burgos  2:58  

Yeah. You know, it's funny that you say that about the work behind this project. So many people has passed by, so many people. I should reframe. I should reframe the concept: no pass by, so many people have engaged on these gardening practice that we have created here, Pendle Hill, and now we have Anna Hill, accompanying us in the team leading us in this process, but every single interview every single episode, and it sparks so many good, great ideas. 

Dwight Dunston  3:38  

Oh man. It's been a blessing to collaborate with you, and Anna is our new producer this year it's  been incredible, Anna Hill, to collaborate with with her, and Frances Kreimer, and we have Peterson Toscano helping out this year. 

Francisco Burgos  3:56  

Excellent, excellent. 

Dwight Dunston  3:56  

You know, our team is strong. 

Francisco Burgos  3:59  

Yeah! 

Dwight Dunston  3:59  

And for our listeners out there, we are welcoming you back to The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope. In a season where our guests are talking so much about the things that they're up to, right, both out in the world, in terms of their vocation, but also internally the work and the growth and the transformation happening within them, and how they are nurtured and nourished into that work that they do, the transformation, the commitment to bringing that more just world into fruition. I'm curious, what has been supporting you to be feel nurtured?

Francisco Burgos  4:40  

This is a great question. I I can confess to you that when we named the podcast, The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, and if you have been listening to the podcast, you will notice that hope is everywhere. It's everywhere. One of the daily rhythms that I try to, to exercise, as a spiritual practice that if you ask me the most direct question, how is that you find the energy or nurture yourself in this way? I will say, you know, it's waking up in the morning, taking those 15, 20 minutes to be mindful that what is in front of me, and what is that I am called to do today, in a not rhetorical way, but in a very practical way. So I create a space for silence. I do a contemplative practice every single day, you know, this is how I start my days. Within that contemplative practice, I invite sometime a poem, sometime a reading. I try to ask at least one query to myself, What is the query that I want to hold today? That has been a practice that I have been doing for several years now. I love it, I love it. 

I have a jar of people a jar with names, full of names of people. Every year I, I replenish that jar at the end of the year. And as the year is starting, the calendar year is starting, I have new names. And every day I take one name, and that name will be the person that I will be holding. As I go through my days, that way, I don't feel that I am walking my path alone. But at the same time, I had the opportunity to intentionally holding somebody in love. That gave me a very strong sense of connections.

Dwight Dunston  6:45  

I love both of those, both the internal, you know, the way of starting every day with that contemplative practice helps to nourish you ground you and then the ways that you reach outside of you with this jar of names of loved ones, community members that you will hold on your heart. If I may, I may borrow that if that's cool with you. 

Francisco Burgos  7:05  

Yeah, this is this is no..

Dwight Dunston  7:07  

This is for the people...

Francisco Burgos  7:08  

Yeah, these practices are for everybody. 

Dwight Dunston  7:11  

Of course, of course. 

Francisco Burgos  7:12  

Anyone is welcome to use them. And I feel the same. You know, I learned from your practices. I, when I hear them, I feel oh, this is an invitation for you to do the same. So may I revert the questions to you? I am sharing two practice right now with you of what is giving me energy, what is nourishing my spirit, but how about you?

Dwight Dunston  7:40  

Yeah, there's one that comes to mind. It's a commitment this year for me every month to actually travel to the ocean. The closest one to Philadelphia, where I'm living, is about an hour and 15 minutes away, right across state lines in New Jersey. I go to the ocean in this practice of a year long honoring of my grief actually. I've just gotten to learn myself and learn that how vast and connected and inspired I want to be in this world. And I'm, you know me, I'm a very joyful, outgoing person in lots of ways. And also there's a way where I'm like, nope, if it's gonna make me sad, I'm not gonna look at it, right. And I've learned, honestly through my time here at Pendle Hill, and through conversations and through readings, the need to honor this part of me that's also brokenhearted, about some of the things that you see. You know, we talk about on this podcast, the things growing up through the cracks of our broken system. 

Francisco Burgos  8:48  

Yeah

Dwight Dunston  8:48  

And the pieces of the broken system, bring me a lot of broken heartedness and sadness and grief. Once a month, I've committed to going to the ocean and worshiping and singing and journaling and reading, sometimes just sitting in and crying. I sometimes ask questions, you know, in my heart. Every time, Francisco, I get an answer or an inspiration or a message that plants in me and then I jot down, and I feel more connected to the joys and the gratitudes in my life from this monthly practice. That's been really nourishing for me, and honestly gives me the energy to show up in these conversations here on The Seed, or in my relationships, or in my art practices, in my family, in my friendships. I was nervous to share it. But I'm also excited to share it, you know, with you and those listening. That's that's been a practice. 

Francisco Burgos  9:47  

No, it's a great practice, because you nail it down. Sometimes we don't want to go to that space, that bring us sadness, that bring us whatever emotion that we don't want to deal with. But the truth is, until we are able to embrace them, we won't be able to transform. This is another word that I have been playing with a lot lately, transformation. What really we think when we are talking about transformation, I do believe like, for example, that this space that we have created, here is an invitation to explore our transformation together on a different level. Wherever you are, let's invite tiny, small practices that can create a huge, big transformation in your life over time. I thank you for sharing that with me today. 

Dwight Dunston  10:50  

Yeah, that word transformation. As you name comes up in our conversations with our guests there, it's present in this season as well with our guest. I'm curious if your understanding of seeds, or radical hope, if your thoughts on these things have evolved over these past seasons. 

Francisco Burgos  11:10  

I think that hope is always evolving. What a beautiful metaphor, the seed. You know, the seed is one element that we know that is in constant transformation. You plant a seed, and a couple of weeks later, you have a little plant and that continues growing. You know, we plant a seed by having a conversation among us and with others, we hope that that seed will invite people to explore, and dance with those conversations in their own way, as they transform in their own lives. 

And this is where the radical hope came to be. The radical hope going through the metaphor of rooting ourselves in in our reality, in order to grow from them and transform them. When you think about the seed, one of the things that is strong for me is this is a very practical way of tending to the land, to the land of transformation, to the land of happiness, to the land of building community, to the land of collective learning. There are so many things here that that we are dancing with that make me so happy. Dwight, I am also curious what these project is sparking on you. 

Dwight Dunston  12:38  

Yeah, this season, specifically, we are thinking a lot about the ways that folks are being nurtured by community in order to do their work in the world or be the change they want to see in the world, to learn how to rest well and come home to themselves, their bodies, their minds, their spirits. Also, a few of them are offering practices for listeners to tap into their own sense of nourishment or cultivate their own nurturing practices for themselves in the work that they do, or their practice of coming home to themselves, their spirit, their hearts. And folks will also hear this, yeah, this real intention around the things that keep people engaged, involved, intentional in the work that they do, and how they how they move in the world. You know, what supports them, and I love that we both got to share practice today, each of us. That's what our guests are bringing to their lives are as practice and also some of the specific ways one can practice to move with love and intention as we build the beloved community.

Francisco Burgos  13:59  

I really want to invite our listener community to reach out to reach out and let us know, you know, the same question that I just asked Dwight, and that Dwight asked me, you know what The Seed is sparking on on you. If I am listening to The Seed for the first time, what do you think the people will expect?

Dwight Dunston  14:27  

My hope is that people continue to feel rooted and connected to their spirit, their purpose. As we try and live out our purpose in this time that we're given here. It can often feel for me really isolating when I don't know who else is out there. Or who else is on my team or who else is feeling brokenhearted about some of the things we see or who else is out there dreaming and building and creating worlds and their minds and then taking it from the head to the heart and in the hearts of the hands. In Season Two, we talked a lot about that: who else is putting their hands in the dirt and cultivating in bringing into fruition their visions. I think you can expect a new cast of community members that you can root in your heart their voices their experiences, in a way that my hope is that inspires you to continue to, to go out in in whatever community you're a part of, or whatever movement you're a part of, or whatever way you're trying to enrich the world that you that you feel well resourced, well backed. Well connected, loved. 

Thank you, Francisco for allowing me another opportunity to steward these conversations into the world. Thank you to my whole team, the whole team for all of the work you've done behind the scenes.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the seed conversations for radical hope, with Pendle Hill's executive director Francisco Burgos. The Seed is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center, open to all, for Spirit-led learning, retreat and community. We're located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni Lenape people. Visit us at pendlehill.org. 

Many of our guests are teachers, leaders, and speakers at Pendle Hill, and we host workshops, retreats and lectures all year round. For full list of these upcoming education opportunities, visit pendlehill.org/learn. 

This episode was produced and edited by Anna Hill, with production support and advising from Peterson Toscano. Our theme music is the I Rise Project by Reverend Rhetta Morgan and Bennet Kuhn, produced by Astronautical Records. 

This project was made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H. and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund. 

If you're finding these conversations meaningful, you can support our work financially by heading over to pendlehill.org/donate. And we would love it if you can subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you get your podcasts. It helps us to continue planting these seeds.

Feel free to get in touch with us by emailing podcast@pendlehill.org. You can follow us @pendlehillseed on all social media platforms. 

We're on a journey and I'm glad to be on it together.