The Path to Living Your Best Life

We each have our path of healing. The path that brings us to live our fullest and best life. And that path, it will be different for each of us. The things that may work for one may not work for another, or perhaps the timing is not quite right. I believe that we each have an inner knowledge of the path best suited for ourself, and when we learn to quiet the noise and listen we can find that path. 

I wanted to share a bit about a friend of mine; one who I have watched on the path to living his fullest and best life. 

Many, many years ago I was working in a bar in San Francisco, when I met Austin Lucas. I was managing and bartending and he worked the door. He was a musician that one of our coworkers nicknamed Buttercup. My strongest memory of him was of us hanging out and him playing and singing the song “I saw red” by Warrant.

Fast forward 3 lifetimes to September 2014.

I am not sure what made me think of him, but I typed his name into the facebook search engine, and we connected. About a year later he was going to be playing a show here in Brooklyn, so I took a shift off of work to see him. At the time, taking a shift off of work was a big deal. I remember thinking I needed to allow myself to have more fun, and not let money and work rule my life. It only took 4 years for that lesson to really sink in. haha.

Watching him play was surreal. I remember being blown away by how beautiful and powerful his voice was, so different than I remembered. We were kids (early 20’s) when we met, and now he was a man. A man that had lived a lot of things in his lifetime. He had loved, lost, hurt, thrived, and struggled. He was a long lost friend, and we still had a powerful friendship after so much time.

He shared with me a little about the dissolution of his marriage and how he had stopped drinking, because it compounded his already difficult depression. Over the next few years I met up with him when he played in town and we shared stories of our lives. He never said so, but it was clear that he was on the journey to live his best life; he had changed his eating habits, started a working out, took up Muay Thai, started taking anti-depressants, let go of a relationship that was no longer supportive to his growth, and start playing with a band again.

It seems as if I saw him in between most of these changes, and I was able to notice the shifts each time we connected. We never spoke about all the work it took to make the decisions and stick to them. We never talked about how many times in the past he had tried to make these changes. We never talked about all the times he had to shut down the voices and noise in his head that tried to get him off track. We never talked about the darkness that came before each of these decisions. But I know Austin is human, and just like the rest of us he went through these things. I also know that Austin is strong, and somehow through everything he has been through, the world around him, and the noise inside of him, he was able to listen to that part of him that is fighting for his greatest good, his best life.

The other night I was lucky enough to see him live again. We didn’t have too much time to catch up before the show, so I can honestly say that I had no idea what his day was like, or what was going on in his head and heart before the show, but I can say that he brought to his audience the man he is supposed to be. I can barely remember the kid with his guitar singing I saw red, because the man he has become is powerful, fluid, open, JOYFUL, dedicated, funny, open, self assured, loving. I feel lucky to call this man my friend, and I look forward to staying connected as he continues to follow his path towards his best life.

Austin Lucas has punk rock roots. He has been playing country music for many years, and has recently started playing with his band The Bold Party, bringing a good time rock’n’roll vibe to his songs. You can check him here https://www.austinlucas.com/