August 31, 2006

Molly Lunde has embarked on many travels since she graduated from Yellow Springs High School, but she always came back home between trips. This summer she and her partner, Lee Kibblewhite, became the proud parents of Lily.

By Diane Chiddister

In her 31 years, Molly Lunde has lived a life of adventure. She has worked in a taverna on a Greek island, traveled through Europe, studied yoga in Thailand, and lived in New York City.

But in between her travels – a year here, a year and a half there – Lunde always came home to Yellow Springs. She returned to her hometown to see family and friends, to recharge her batteries, and to rest up before she took off again, she said in a recent interview.

“I know there’s a safety net under my adventures, and that makes being away much easier,” Lunde said.

Lunde is close to her family, many of whom live in town, including her mother and stepfather, Dianeah Wanicek and Robert Pryor, her sister Aimee Maruyama and Aimee’s husband, Benji, and their two children. She loves the village’s sense of community, she said, and how spending many growing up years in Yellow Springs has connected her to so many people in town.

She feels this sense of connection in even the most mundane of daily activities, she said, from walking downtown and seeing familiar faces on the street, to running into old friends, and catching up on their lives.

“I know that if I come downtown by myself I can probably find a companion for lunch at Current Cuisine,” she said. “All of these things are amazing.”

While Lunde has always felt a close attachment to Yellow Springs – she moved here to live with her mother and siblings when she was in high school – her connection with the village deepened when her family faced a tragedy. Several years ago her older sister, Jenny, was seriously injured in a car accident, and during the frightening days that followed, Lunde felt her family’s spirits lifted by the love and support they received from the village. Every night after they returned from the hospital, she said, a gourmet meal had appeared at their doorstep, and they still don’t know for sure who cooked them all.

“I’ve been to so many different places and I’ve seen great communities,” she said. “But the one thing I always do when I’m away is to talk about Yellow Springs.”

Recently, Lunde has begun a different sort of adventure. She gave birth this summer to Lily, her first child. She and her partner, Lee Kibblewhite, are now starting to think about settling down, at least for a while. Part of her would like to stay in Yellow Springs to be close to family and friends, she said, but the couple is also thinking of relocating to a community of fellow practioners of ashtanga yoga. Also, Lunde said, she is concerned about the high cost of living in Yellow Springs.

“Affordability is definitely a factor,” she said.

She and Kibblewhite might follow the path of several friends, Lunde said, and move outside town across the Clark County line, where the taxes are lower. And while she would still be close to Yellow Springs, she would be sorry not to be able to push her baby downtown in her stroller, she said.

Lunde has been able to live here so far with the help of her family, she said. Her stepfather lives six months of each year in India for his work at Antioch College Abroad, and her mother joins him every other year. During those times Lunde sometimes stays in her parents’ home, although she also enjoys living with her parents when they’re in town, she said.

She and Kibblewhite are collaborating on an import business, she said, and while the business will allow them the opportunity to travel, the financial risks are considerable. Kibblewhite is British, and Lunde has been surprised to see that young Britons tend to take more entrepreneurial risks, partly because they don’t pay for health insurance. In this country, she said, young people often seem tied to a job just so they can afford insurance.

The couple met in Thailand at a yoga workshop, and Lunde’s commitment to her yoga practice colors her life. She has been offered a position at a yoga center in Hawaii, she said, and she and Kibblewhite are considering moving there. But they also feel a deep pull to set down roots into Yellow Springs, and raise their daughter in the community that Molly Lunde calls home.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com