Relatively Stable

Kimberly Carter
  • 5.0 (10)
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In Relatively Stable we delve into the journeys of those who have faced challenges, uncovered their passions, and discovered resilience along the way. Whether you're here for the stories, seeking inspiration, or simply drawn to the wisdom we glean from horses—and life—you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into the narratives that remind us how to stay relatively stable, no matter what comes our way. stableroots.substack.com

  1. 5D AGO

    The Book Beneath the Barn

    In this voiceover essay, I trace the long arc from cleaning stalls in the Dark Corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains to stewarding a farm, leading a community, and finally turning toward the book I have been circling for decades. What begins as a reflection on land loss and self-censorship widens into something more foundational: free expression, oral tradition, and the responsibility of carrying forward knowledge that lives in land, animals, and lived experience. I speak candidly about fear, second-guessing, and the temptation to edit myself in a cultural moment that rewards sound bites over substance. This episode explores: - The erosion of expressive freedom — and how self-censorship takes root - What farming teaches about leadership, identity, and endurance - The difference between polished expertise and embodied knowledge - The pandemic-era shift in horsemanship toward connection over control - Why complex, relational work cannot be reduced to a flow chart - The accumulated wealth of oral tradition inside barns and back fields - The decision to stop waiting for a “clean” moment and begin writing the book now I reflect on the poets and horsemen whose words survived because someone chose to write them down — including 13th-century Sufi mystic Rumi — and ask what stories we are responsible for preserving in our own time. At its heart, this episode is about remembering why we started, reclaiming voice, and meeting one another in the field beyond right and wrong — where land and story endure. Listener Reflection: - What work has been shaping you, even if you didn’t recognize it at the time? - Where are you editing yourself out of your own story? - What knowledge are you carrying that deserves to be written down? Thank you for taking these journeys with me. Love, Kim Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    9 min

  2. FEB 12 · BONUS

    Cultivating Empathy

    Cultivating Empathy In a world that tries to drain it out of you In this reading of my weekly, Stable Roots, essay, I explore what empathy actually is — and what it isn’t. We hear the word constantly. It’s praised, politicized, misused, and often confused with emotional intensity or moral agreement. But empathy, practiced well, is deeper and more complex than that. It isn’t about absorbing everything or proving how deeply we feel. It’s about listening carefully enough to receive another person’s experience without overtaking it. Through stories of caregiving, frozen pipes, horses, projection, and grief, this piece traces the difference between empathy and assumption — between standing beside someone and bracing against them. It looks at how unchecked empathy can turn defensive, how misdirected responsibility leads to burnout, and why boundaries are not the opposite of care. At its core, this is an exploration of listening. Of what it means to be accurately received. Of how warmth, when applied patiently and in the right place, allows what’s frozen to move again. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the demand to care about everything at once, or if you’ve ever mistaken reaction for connection, or if you’re learning how to stay soft without losing yourself -- you might find something useful in this piece. Love, Kim Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    21 min

  3. JAN 8

    Why Not Me?

    In this essay, I write from the days surrounding my father’s death and our first quiet Christmas at Lavender Hill Farm. What I expected to be rest turned into a confrontation with how my body and mind responded after months of caregiving, loss, and responsibility, and with an old folk practice that gave language to something I didn’t yet know how to name. Sin Eating weaves together farm work, folklore, and a Christmas Eve medical scare with one of our mares. I reflect on the impulse to take responsibility for loss, to keep internal ledgers, and to hold what feels unbearable in the hope that something else might be spared. The piece moves between grief in the human body and illness in an animal body, asking where responsibility begins, where it ends, and what happens when we try to carry too much. This is an essay about embodied grief, stewardship, inherited wisdom, and leadership fatigue. It’s about how attention and simple acts can become containers in moments of crisis, and how some forms of knowing arrive without explanation—through touch, repetition, and attention. Stable Roots is reader-supported. Subscribing directly supports my writing and the ongoing care of the horses and land at Lavender Hill. Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    21 min

  4. JAN 1 · BONUS

    Keeping Vigil

    Keeping Vigil At the threshold of the Fire Horse This piece was written in the slowed time of dying and published at the turning of the year. It traces what happens when clocks stop mattering, when mirrors become witnesses, and when keeping vigil becomes the only meaningful work left. Moving between hospice rooms and hay fields, folklore and neuroscience, agitation and clarity, it asks what it means to stay with someone all the way to the edge—and how to know when staying gives way to letting go. Keeping Vigil explores end-of-life presence, terminal lucidity, the nervous system’s role in dying, and the ancient human instinct to watch so no one crosses alone. It is also a reckoning with control, grief, land stewardship, and the kind of light that follows mourning rather than resolves it. Published on New Year’s Day, at the approach of the Fire Horse year, this piece stands at a threshold—between endings and motion, between what must be released and what insists on moving forward anyway. Thank you for reading, for witnessing, and for being here. Love, Kim Links & References Subscribe to Stable Roots: Essays, reflections, and field notes from Lavender Hill Bramblewood Stables at Lavender Hill: The land, the horses, and the work that holds them Relatively Stable Podcast: Conversations about grief, land, horses, and grounding in the midst of chaos FX – Dying for Sex: Nurse Amy’s explanation of the biological stages of dying Terminal Lucidity (End-of-Life Phenomenon): Overview and research on clarity near death Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Fire Horse: Cultural context and meaning of the Fire Horse cycle Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    21 min

  5. 12/18/2025 · BONUS

    The Practice

    The Practice: How repetition, devotion, and the oldest meaning of the word keep us rooted in an unpredictable world This week’s essay is an exploration that began with the idea of creative routines and ended somewhere far more human. I'm reading the full piece to you here and bringing you into the fields at Lavender Hill: the old fencing we inherited, the hurricane debris still shaping the horizon, the unexpected gunfire along the geldings’ field, and the small acts that keep us tethered to ourselves when the world slips off its axis. This is what it means to practice. You’ll hear about what it means to practice in the oldest sense of the word—not drilling toward perfection, but returning to the things that keep us present: showing up for horses and humans; speaking up when fear rises, letting kindness shift the outcome. And remembering that practicing humanity is as real and necessary as any repair we take on at the farm. If you’d like to read along or share this piece, the full essay is at Stable Roots. And if the work feeds you in any way, subscribing—free or paid—helps me keep writing and helps Bramblewood Stables at Lavender Hill keep growing into the place we’re building together. Love, Kim Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    16 min

  6. 12/11/2025

    Cats in the Walls

    Cats in the Walls Inherited ghosts, holiday garland, and being ambushed by forgiveness This week’s essay didn’t go where I expected it to go. I sat down to talk about shadow work with horses, and instead found myself inside my lived story of hospice care, old family fractures, and forgiveness coming before I'm ready to let go. You’ll hear about the move to Lavender Hill, the grief that followed us there, the ghosts my father is wrestling with, and the ones I’ve carried far too long. You’ll also hear how a single comment from a stranger cracked something open I’d been gripping for decades. And, because life has a sense of humor, you’ll hear about the cats my father swears are walking through the walls. Mostly, this piece is about what happens when the past presses in and the land around you insists on offering another way. If you’re moving through your own shadows right now, you're not alone. If you want these essays and voiceovers delivered each week, you can subscribe to Stable Roots as a free or paid member. I’m glad you’re here. Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    15 min

  7. 12/04/2025 · BONUS

    A Beginner’s Guide to Shadow Work

    A Beginner's Guide to Shadow Work This week, I’m taking you into the barn aisle at Lavender Hill -- into the fog, the quiet, and the shifting inner landscape we all carry. We talk a lot about showing up for our lives, but we rarely talk about the selves that show up instead of us: the crisis-trained parts, the exhausted parts, the dreamers, the watchers, and the ones bracing for storms that never fully arrive. In this episode, I explore the “crowd inside us”—the sub-selves shaped in childhood, the ones that still pull the strings, and the deeper shadow layers beneath them. We look at why we react the way we do, why certain patterns won’t let go, and how shadow work invites us to name these hidden selves so we can finally lead from a truer place. I talk about the old versions of me that still try to run the show, the grounded self emerging in this new season, and how naming our inner parts becomes a doorway into clarity, compassion, and real change. Together, we look at what happens when we become allergic to our own shadow and how to stay present through the discomfort long enough to learn from it. You’ll also find three simple journaling prompts to begin your own shadow work practice—gentle ways to shine a light into the places we often avoid. If you’re in the Greenville, SC area, I’d love to see you at December’s Rooted Gatherings here at Lavender Hill. And if you’re joining from afar, I’m always here for a private Zoom session. Come stand on the ground with me this week. Let’s reconnect to the selves who rise, the ones who soften, and the shadows asking to be named. Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    20 min

  8. 11/20/2025 · BONUS

    Flagged, Stolen, and Still Not Silenced

    Flagged, Stolen, and Still Not Silenced This week’s essay weaves together two moments, years apart, when something I relied on to hold my words was taken from me: a stolen teenage journal and, more recently, an unexpected stint in Facebook jail after an algorithm misread a comment to my friend. These aren’t the deepest or most dangerous forms of silencing. Many people know far heavier versions. But they did press me back into a familiar question: Where does my voice actually live? I trace the thread from that missing notebook to a restricted account, through fear, inaction, and the horses who keep teaching me how to return to myself. This episode is about noticing, grounding, and remembering that our inner steadiness isn’t something a platform, or a thief, can take. In this episode: • The night my journal disappeared • What happened when Facebook shut me out • Fear as a starting point rather than a threat • How the horses at Lavender Hill model presence and instinct • Reclaiming small forms of personal power for big results Support the Work Being flagged reminds me how fragile other platforms can be, so I’m choosing to root more of my work on Substack, where my voice can stay whole. If you want to support the horses, the land, and this writing, here are the ways to join me: Free Subscription — read, share, and help the work travel. Paid Subscription (20% off annual plans) — full access to all audio guides, workbooks, monthly Zooms, and behind-the-scenes updates. Founding Members — everything above + four private coaching calls in 2026. Gift Subscriptions — for everyone on your list who needs grounding and community. Get full access to Stable Roots at stableroots.substack.com/subscribe

    17 min
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About

In Relatively Stable we delve into the journeys of those who have faced challenges, uncovered their passions, and discovered resilience along the way. Whether you're here for the stories, seeking inspiration, or simply drawn to the wisdom we glean from horses—and life—you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into the narratives that remind us how to stay relatively stable, no matter what comes our way. stableroots.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kimberly Carter
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    56
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Kimberly Carter
  • Show Website
    Relatively Stable