Our last walk through Trinity Park.
Very rarely in life do we have such identifiable closings of chapters in our lives. Most sneak up on us and oftentimes we might not even know a chapter has closed until long after it has concluded. We try desperately to hang on to what once was however when we do finally realize something has ended it can feel jarring. I find myself at one such juncture in my life. I have lived and worked in Fort Worth for almost 25 years and as I look out at the skyline as I write this, I can energetically feel the goodbye that I will soon be wishing the city—it’s bittersweet. One closing chapter always leads to the next undiscovered stage that awaits. Hello always seems to feel just a little bit better than goodbye although the two are so irrevocably linked that they literally become the yin and yang of all relationships, be it personal or just experiential.
With every “hello” a “goodbye” waits in the shadows to bring a finality to a once dear aspect of our life. Endings and beginnings are forever linked and our relationship with each aspect speaks to our ability to let go of attachment and surrender. These days I often ask myself, “How mentally flexible can I be? How much can I trust? How much can I let go?”
I’d like to say that I am being tested at this moment, but I actually don’t believe in “tests.” Instead, I think God/Source/Universe (use whatever term you feel comfortable with) gives us opportunities for spiritual growth. We either accept the challenge of the opportunity and we elevate ourselves spiritually or we choose to stay where we are. Either choice is perfectly fine, eventually we all advance spiritually and there is truly nothing to achieve. We are complete as we are. This is the great illusion that has been perpetrated upon us, that we have something to achieve. To be clear—we do not.
Our daily FW walks.
God/Source/Universe opens doors. She also closes doors…in order to open a new door. This is the Cosmic Dance of Consciousness. Everything has a season and when we align vibrationally with the Universe we begin to recognize the comings and goings of the season. Each season brings special traits and lessons, and each serve in their own fashion. When the time comes, that season departs bringing a new reality for us to experience. We say “goodbye” to one season in order to welcome another with “hello.” We can’t have “hello” without “goodbye.” We can’t have “goodbye” without “hello.”
I said hello to Fort Worth more than 23 years ago on a cold winter evening in January of 1997. Frank Ford, Troy Grant, David Wilk and I drove to Cowtown to scout locations for a comedy show we were planning to start—the yet to be named Four Day Weekend Comedy. I thought it was a silly idea to go to Fort Worth to scout locations. My own prejudicial thinking about the city wondered why in the world we would want to come to a Podunk town to start a show. We were living in Dallas which I thought was far more cosmopolitan and would be a much more relevant springboard to other opportunities in Hollywood (I used to have dreams of Hollywood).
The first time I set foot in the city I could see how limited my thinking was regarding Fort Worth. I instantly fell in love with the city and its very relevant arts scene. Fort Worth became a little gem that you had to see to believe. She treated us well from the start and became the most fertile ground we could have chosen to birth our little baby. What would follow was nothing short of miraculous; 6,500 shows later, performing for two US Presidents, an Armed Forces Entertainment Tour, writing a best-selling book, Happy Accidents, being named Small Business of the Year by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and being awarded the Key to the City by our friend, Mayor Mike Moncrief.
Fort Worth said hello to us in the most beautiful fashion. The city treated us like their sons and in turn we told everyone who would listen about this wonderful city called Fort Worth. With that beautiful hello, a bittersweet goodbye awaited. It lurked in the shadows for a long time and there was never a moment when I didn’t know it was there. I expected it to pop out at any moment and in the early years of the show I thought it would be sooner rather than later.
M*A*S*H finale.
Goodbye is patient. Goodbye waits. Goodbye is judicious. And when the time comes, Goodbye arrives when we least expect it. When we let our guard down for one moment it bursts out of the shadows and says, “Time for you to come with me. A new chapter awaits.”
“How flexible can you be?” Goodbye asks. “How willing are you to let go of the old to embrace the new?”
This is a question we all have trouble answering. Hello feels so fresh, yet in order to say Hello we have to embrace Goodbye. The longer we hang on the longer it takes for our new reality to emerge.
Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen
As I began writing this, my mind drifted back to 1983 and the ending of a very popular show, M*A*S*H. In its day, M*A*S*H was the biggest thing on television. It dominated the ratings for years and when it came to the end of its run the final episode tallied more viewers than any other television show in history (this record has now been broken by the Super Bowl broadcasts).
I remember watching the finale and wondering how they would put a nice bow on this classic show. In the last scene, we watched as Hawkeye looked out of the window of his departing helicopter and he saw a message that was left for him on the ground. Spelled out in rocks were the words, GOODBYE.
The final day at Indra’s Grace.
It was emotional. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend that we would never see again. Even as a kid, I felt incredible sadness when it ended. I thought naively at the time, “Will there ever be another show like this? This is one of the greatest shows every produced. Certainly nothing this great will ever be produced again.”
As I’ve gotten older, I have come to learn, there is always something that will replace a classic. No matter how great something appears to be something else will fill the void. When one thing departs, another arrives. In fact, sometimes the replacement is even better than the thing we said goodbye to. New things will manifest to supplant what once was and will take us to new heights. HELLO. We always elevate with Hello.
I say goodbye to Fort Worth. She was a special city to me during a very special time of my life. I grew to love this quaint town that I first dismissed with barely a second glance. I was a snob to Cowtown until her charm won me over and now it’s time to bid her adieu. Is it sad? Of course. Endings always are. We say goodbye to something that was comfortable, however we never grow when we are comfortable. Growth comes when we feel slightly itchy and out of our element. Growth comes when we enter the field of the unknown. This is where pure manifestation lies. In order to grow and change we have to try something new. The Beetles said it best when they sang, “You say Goodbye, and I say Hello.”
Now, I look forward to my new Hello. I’m not sure what to expect and if truth be told, I’m a little nervous to meet this new Hello. Aren’t we always a little skeptical of new chapters? New chapters are uncertain. They require our presence and we have to actively create them and if we don’t, we stop growing. We stop spiritually advancing.
We need only to be brave. We need only to let go and surrender. Just let go and say…
HELLO…
To hear David narrate this blog on Spotify click the button below:
