Kali Horner doesn’t believe in luck or coincidence. Just ask this Detroit native how or why and he’ll tell you things happen for a reason. Like the time a right turn lead him to where you find him almost daily, because, as he says “everyone needs and deserves a massage.”

In Mississippi since 1999, Horner moved to Jackson to play football at Jackson State University. Graduate school was next — or was it? “I figured that was something you do after (undergrad),” Horner told us. But, it didn’t seem to be in the cards. “Really truthfully, I just prayed about it. I asked myself ‘What am I supposed to do here?’”

Knee injuries took him out the game, so, he said, football didn’t work out. Horner was seeking something, anything that spoke to him. “I was giving friends here and there massages and someone said, ‘You could do this; you should really look into it.” he explained. After that, one thing lead to the next. “A girlfriend at the time brought me a pamphlet from the school I later attended, (Virginia College.) Once I started learning about it, massage was me. It fit everything I was into.”

How he ended up at Rainbow is a story in and of itself. Horner explains: “It was about five years ago, things were really slow, and I was trying to make something happen. I was working out of a hair salon not too far from here, doing the same thing, posting for chair massages. One day I ventured out, four dollars to my name. I was about to turn into University Hospital, just to see what I could do. They wanted $2 to park. I thought ‘I can’t do that,’” he said with a chuckle.

Directional signage pointed Horner in, what turned out to be, the right direction. “Coming out, you have to go right, toward Old Canton,” he said. That’s when he decided to check out Rainbow Co-Op. “I brought my chair in, didn’t ask anyone, and just set up.” It didn’t take long for management to ask who he was. “I figured if I did it long enough, somebody would come talk to me about it. It’s been cool ever since.” Rainbow Plaza is his office, full time, but Horner will make house calls to private residences or businesses. He has worked out of Highland Village, but, he said, people know him from Fondren.

Horner said Rainbow is a blessing. “Being in an environment of healing, my diet has changed,” he told us. “People come here to be healthy, and I feel like I’m a part of that process.” For Horner, that involves more than just exercise and diet, though. “There’s not only a physical dimension to massage, but a psychological, spiritual and emotional element. A lot of things happen before I put my hands on someone’s skin. There’s a whole dynamic that’s unseen but definitely felt. That’s my groove.”

Life’s roads take us on the strangest journeys sometimes, but Horner said, for him, there’s a deeper way to look at it. “I don’t believe in coincidence at all,” he told us. “I believe in purpose and being lead to do something. I follow the spirit. I go along for the ride. Life will do what it wants to do, regardless of us sometimes. You can put your intentions out there, and work for it, but, sometimes, you just go with the flow.”

Kali Horner’s Therapeutic Chair Massage is $1/minute, Mon-Saturday, typically Noon – 6pm, barring appointments elsewhere, in the front entrance of Rainbow Co-Op. For more in-depth sessions, such as full body massage, rates are $70-85 per hour at your location.