Here...The Barriers Have Lifted
By J Kim Wright and Marty Price
We've only just arrived in Asheville this time but we've both been here before. I was first called to Asheville at age 17. I was a top student at my high school and my guidance counselor was pushing me to apply to lots of top colleges. The pattern repeated frequently: He would give me catalogs and recommendations. I would read the descriptions of the places and immediately eliminate them. By the time March came along, I am pretty sure he had given up on me. I remained sure that the perfect place would find me. It did. The school paper had been running a series about small colleges. In March, the series featured Warren Wilson College. I immediately recognized WWC as my place and applied. They recognized me too and offered me a full scholarship. That was my first time out of my native Florida. I had never seen a mountain or a waterfall except in pictures. WWC was a wonderful place and I flourished there. Life's circumstances took me away from the Swannanoa Valley after graduation but I visited as often as I could.
Marty grew up in Detroit but came to love blue grass music. Over the years, he was frequently drawn to the Asheville area. He spent time in Black Mountain and was a fan of the music of several of my WWC classmates. A nature-lover, he ended up settling in the Pacific Northwest.
My husband took a job in Portland, Oregon a few years ago and we moved out there from Chapel Hill. The husband soon became an ex-husband but I felt compelled to stay on in Portland. Two years after my divorce, I got a call from Marty Price, offering me a job. (The story of our relationship was published in the local magazine for cultural creatives, Alternatives, see http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/29/wright-price.html .)
Marty and I soon became more than co-workers. Our lives had so many parallels, it seemed that we were meant to be together. We thought Portland was a wonderful place to live but we kept hitting barrier after barrier. In January, 2004, we were brainstorming about what to do next when I found myself saying that we could move to North Carolina. The words surprised me...where had THAT idea come from? But they rang true for us both and we began to investigate. By the end of February, we'd decided we needed to make a trip.
Door began to swing open. Delta Airlines sent me a voucher for a 20% discount on any trip as long as we left by the end of February. We could fly roundtrip to Raleigh/Durham for $140 each. I emailed some friends in Durham and asked if anyone had a car we could borrow for the week. THREE cars were offered within an hour. We sent a note to our Asheville area contacts. Maureen McCarthy emailed back and said she thought she could find us a place to stay....and a wonderful place she found, a great house, Max & Kelly's, where we could feed the cats while they were out of town. Our trip was full of synchronicities. Marty saw a flyer for a book and said he'd like to meet the author. Moments later he was in Malaprops when she came in. They had a nice chat, to be continued. I had met Scott Lamb, a law student at a holistic law event in Vermont in 2001. Scott's brother-in-law happened to be visiting with Maureen when we arrived. He recognized my name from a recent appearance at an event in San Francisco. We learned that Scott was now practicing law in Asheville and were able to have lunch with him during the trip. We couldn't turn around without coming across someone we knew or wanted to know. It became clear that we would be moving to Asheville.
We timed our move for the release of the new phone book. We're now in the process of setting up our holistic law practice in downtown Asheville. The web site is under construction but will soon be up at www.healersofconflicts.com (which now houses the site of our Oregon practice). We found a great house in Black Mountain....our landlord and downstairs neighbor is the publishing office of Creations magazine , Providing Inspiration for the Soul through Healing, Creativity and Down-to-Earth Spirituality since 1987. We've been loving the natural surroundings, the feel of the place, and the music scene here. And, since we've arrived, doors have been opening for us. Before we'd left Portland, as soon as the decision had been made, Marty was consulted by Oprah for one of her shows. We also heard from A&E, the Discover channel, and ABC News. The government of Bermuda hired him to help create a proposal for a victim-offender mediation program there. My work in "renaissance lawyering" was written about by the Christian Science Monitor and Paul Harvey reported about it on his show. There's even a hush-hush movie deal being discussed. The barriers we experienced in Portland seemed to have lifted and we're excited about what's opening up for us here.
Divorce & Family Law Center
Flat Iron Building Suite 708 253-3355
kimandmarty@healersofconflicts.com