Tour Disasters and Delights

Pixie Lee, you can do this

Aug 25, 2024

It was late afternoon when disaster struck.

After a big fanfare send off I was heading to my first book event in Santa Fe: Day 1 of of my two-month, 25-city USA tour for my new book Wild, Willing, and Wise.

I was driving my badass volcano red Toyota Tundra, pulling Aenea, my 20-foot Flying Cloud Airstream. Both had been professionally checked and given the green light before I left.

All ready to go, leaving from Las Vegas, New Mexico

A white truck drove up beside me, staying just slightly behind my window. I ignored it, assuming it was admiring my rig. And then he pulled up even with my window and made the dreaded roll-down-your-window sign.

“What's wrong?” I shouted across the gap between us.

“Your tire!” he shouted, pointing back towards the Airstream.

I nodded and pulled over slowly, puzzled. I didn't feel anything wrong. I knew not to make any sudden moves or panic so I slowly coasted to a stop beside a guard rail.

Cars and trucks flowed steadily past me as I got out and assessed.

Aenea's left tire was in shreds, leaving the naked rim on Airstream indecently exposed.

Sigh.

Location: I-25, about 30 miles from home.

Destination: Approximately 20 miles and one hour from the start of my first event.

“Well,” I thought. “The journey begins.”

Life is perfectly imperfect, unpredictable, and unexplainable.

This is one of the most quoted lines from Warrior Goddess Training (which is 10 years old this year!)

What I used to believe when I first started my a spiritual path:

If I set a goal or a destination, if there is something I vision, and then if I do it “right” or am “good” or “spiritual” I should get there with ease and grace.

What I believe now:

When we set a goal or intent (I want to love more! I wish to be more compassionate. I am ready for a new job. I'm want to go on a 2-month tour across the U.S by road!) we are planting a seed in the Universe.

“Hey, Universe! I would like this,” we say to the invisible realms.

And I believe the Universe says “YAY!”

Then the invisible realms start to weave together synchronicities, guides, allies and helpers in support of our intent.

But it doesn't stop there. That is only half of the equation of manifestation.

The second half is that any obstacles: old agreements, fears, and just life doing life perfectly, start to show up as well.

The Universe is not saying to us: “Here is an obstacle, proving you don't deserve to have what you want.”

The Universe is saying: “Hey gorgeous! If you want that, you need to navigate this.”

The beauty is that by facing our obstacles with curiosity, courage, and compassion (witnessing our fears instead of believing any old stories of victimization or judgment, shame, guilt or blame) we can be more creative in releasing the past and showing up fully in the present.

These are what I call worthy obstacles.

And when we learn to dance with them instead of fight them we become more skillful, and a lot more light-hearted in the face of change and challenges.

“You are a worthy obstacle!” I said to the tire, and picked up my phone.

First I called Laura, who I knew was also driving from our hometown of Las Vegas NM to Santa Fe. She was going on tour with me to share her beautiful music before each event and promote her new album.

“I'm about 15 minutes from there, I'll just come get you!” she said.

“Perfect, I can just leave the truck and trailer and I'll come back later, and figure it out,” I replied.

We would get to the gig on time, but I would then need to backtrack.

Hmmmm.

I made another phone call.

Franklin, who is a wonder of make shit happen and was the one who had sent me off only 30 minutes earlier, answered the phone.

Over our twenty plus year relationship as friends into lovers into friends into lovers into friends Franklin and I have had many adventures and mishaps and lots of worthy obstacles. Franklin has been a steady rock and huge heart of a human in my life, from helping me move multiple times to building the community kitchen, yurt, and so many other things up on the land and at my house. Together we have gotten seriously stuck in snow, mud, and hail, dealt with multiple emergency situations, breakdowns, and weird surprise things going sideways. We've also hiked, laughed a lot, and traveled together. We are great partners in calm and chaos.

So we can get right to the point.

“My Airstream tire blew, it is in shreds. I need to be in Santa Fe in an hour at the latest. Laura can pick me up but then I have to leave the truck and trailer. What do you think?”

He was silent for a moment, and I waited.

“I'll bring my truck. Get ready to unhook the Airstream, but don't unhook it yet. I'll be there in ½ hour, we can unhook you and you can go. I'll put the spare on, then hook the trailer up to my truck and drive into Santa Fe. We can spend the night there and deal with the tire in the morning,” he said.

“Brilliant. Okay thanks. See you in a bit.”

I called Laura back to tell her the new plan.

“Great, then I'll get everything set up and can play a few songs until you get there,” she said.

I closed my eyes for a few minutes, praying that everything would go smoothly. It was now less than an hour until the event was supposed to begin.

I spent the next ten minutes backing up the trailer to get it to a better spot for Franklin to put on the spare tire. As cars sped by I slowly backed up along the guard rail until I came to an area with a wide shoulder.

I struggled to back the trailer into a good spot, edging back and forth on the shoulder between 75-mile an hour vehicles on my left and a grassy drop off on my right.

After a few minutes of struggle and in near tears, I stopped and closed my eyes, taking a big breath.

“Pixie Lee, you can do this,” I said out loud to myself.

And I did.

Note: If you don't have a loving nickname for yourself that you only use when things are tough, I highly recommend it.

It is kind of like your mama using your full first and middle name only when she is mad at you and needs you to pay attention, but different. It is a name used from your fierce mama self lovingly calling you to attention. HERE. NOW. It is name your inner coach uses to tell you YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS. GO. It is the name you use when you are starting to fray or fear and you need to show up fully. YOU HAVE GOT THIS.

Mine is Pixie Lee, something that came out of my mouth one day during a hard time. Pixie Darlin' was a nickname my friend Gini gave me decades ago, when we brought people to Peru together. Over the years it shortened to Pixie, which my closest friends call me when I'm in a spicy or sassy mood.

My birth name, before I took on Ash and became HeatherAsh was Heather, middle name Lee.

I have no idea when I first started using Pixie Lee as my loving call to action, but it has stuck. I don't use it that often, but when I do it is a loving hand holding me firmly.

A few minutes later Laura pulled up and we hugged, took a selfie with the tire, and she sped off to set up.

And not too long after that Franklin drove up. I unhooked the truck, gave him a huge hug, and headed into Santa Fe.

Miraculously, I arrived right on time.

That all happened on Day 1 - August 6th in New Mexico - and today is Day 19, August 25th in New York. We’ve driven 1,832 miles through eleven states and done five gigs in Austin Texas, Atlanta Georgia, Chapel Hill North Carolina, Frederick Maryland, Boston Massachusetts, and today is Woodstock, New York. There are 16 events to go, and many miles ahead.

I’m loving every second of this precious journey.

Meeting new friends, hugging long-time beloveds, sharing Wild, Willing, and Wise and gaining more insights and inspiration along the way.

Next week I’ll share more about living on the road and the art of being a nomad: the good, the bad, and the wondrous.

If you are near any of our future stops, come on by!

August Tour Dates

Reserve your space or get tickets at wildwillingwise.com
Sunday, August 25th: Woodstock NY at Golden Notebook
Tuesday, August 27th: Cansfield OH at Ursuline Mother House
Thursday, August 29th: Chicago IL at Picnic Wine & Provisions
Saturday, August 31st: Madison WI at Helios and Luna Healing Center

September Tour Dates

September 6 - 8th: Sedona AZ Shamanism and the Divine Feminine workshop
Tuesday, September 10th: Sedona AZ at Global Center for Christ Consciousness
Thursday, September 12th: Phoenix, AZ Changing Hands Bookshop
Saturday, September 14th: Ojai CA at Magic Hour Tea House
Tuesday, September 17th: Davis CA at International House
Thursday, September 19th: Portland OR at New Renaissance
Friday, September 20th: TriCities WA at Adventures Underground
Sunday, September 22: Boise ID at Rediscovered Books
Tuesday, September 24th: Salt Lake City UT at Golden Braid Books
Thursday, September 26th: Denver CO at Tattered Cover
Friday, September 27th: Boulder CO at Boulder Bookstore
Friday, October 4th: Santa Fe NM at Unity of Santa Fe with Arc Bookstore