Shows / Relatively Stable
Relatively Stable
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.
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Episodes
Relatively StableI Didn’t Expect to Fall in Love with a Chicken
I Did Not Expect to Fall in Love with a Chicken Stable Roots | Audio Edition What do a dying chicken, a fountain pen, a small funeral, and an alarming amount…
Relatively StableOxytocin Has Entered the Chat
Oxytocin Has Entered the Chat: Dopamine Is So Yesterday What happens when you've spent most of your life preparing for danger and suddenly find yourself…
Relatively StableIt’s Just Anxiety, Darling
What happens when we become so good at tolerating discomfort that nobody notices we're suffering? After three years of being told the numbness in my hands was…
Relatively StableHope Always Goes Clean
What happens when you find an old version of yourself in a box of dusty photographs, and realize you don’t miss her, but you’re awfully glad somebody took her…
Relatively StablePractical Farm Magic
What if Lot’s wife had OCD? My mother has been asking this question for a long time. Maybe Lot's wife wasn't longing for Sodom. Maybe she was simply halfway…
Relatively StableMane Character Energy
It took a quarter million words to let the horses tell their own stories. This week in Stable Roots, I’m talking about what happened when I accidentally…
Relatively StableJulian Thinks the Barn Is Stupid
What’s the difference between being in control and being controlling? This week in Stable Roots, I’m thinking about all the ways I’ve confused the two — from…
Relatively StableThe Four Seasons
The Four Seasons: An almanac for those who are emotionally dependent on mowing grass Kim has a problem. Summer isn’t even over yet, and she’s already worried…
Relatively StableAlpha is a Misnomer
Alpha is a Misnomer: On horses, wolves, the Cold War, and our need to know who is in charge Who is actually in charge in a herd of horses? For a very long…
Relatively StableA Total Eclipse of the Foxtail
A weed can be growing beside you for years without causing a bit of trouble. Then somebody teaches you its name — and tells you to be afraid of it. Suddenly…
Relatively StableBut Will There Be Riding?
But Will There Be Riding? A social media post that took five minutes for me to write reached more than 40,000 people in a couple hours. It wasn't my weekly…
Relatively StableA Time for Everything
This week in Stable Roots, a rug becomes much more than a rug. As I begin clearing out the room where my father died, I unknowingly prepare my heart for the…
Relatively StableHorse with a Pearl Earring
Horse with a Pearl Earring What do a missing pearl earring, a flea-bitten gray mare named Penny, and three teenagers sleeping in a horse pasture have in…
Relatively StableThe Trees Speak
A few weeks before my wedding, a tree started singing. Christopher and I were standing beside an old pond, preparing to say our vows beneath its branches, when…
Relatively StableThe Joy of Mowing
What if mowing wasn't a chore? This week in Stable Roots, Kim Carter reflects on why climbing onto a tractor has become one of the most restorative parts of…
Relatively StableGranny Magic
Granny Magic: A witness statement from the Blue Ridge Mountains What if the old women knew something we've forgotten? This week, I'm taking you back to one hot…
Relatively StableShut Up and Listen
The Ability to Be Taught Why horses care less about what we think we know. What if the most important learning skill isn't intelligence? This week, Kim Carter…
Relatively StableA Future Me Problem
What year is your problem from? In this week's Stable Roots, Kim explores a simple thought experiment that came to her in the wee hours between waking and…
Relatively StableI'm So Glad I Was Evicted
The best solutions often come at the worst cost. For two decades, Kim grew a business and a life inside the protective casing of fear—terrified of what would…
Relatively StableThe Dreaming
This week's essay started as a dream about a house I didn't know I owned. Then, it became something bigger — an investigation into why the nature of my…
Relatively StableThe Grass Isn't Always Greener
This week's episode is the audio companion to the Stable Roots essay — and it starts with Hero, my little chestnut Quarter Horse, army-crawling under an…
Relatively StableWe Don't Save Old Farms
We Don't Save Old Farms: (They Save Us) In this week’s Stable Roots, Kim Carter traces the layered history of Lavender Hill — the 200-year-old farm in…
Relatively StableYour New Neighbors are Costing You a Fortune
In 2020, the world tilted on its axis. For the Upstate of South Carolina, that tilt sent a wave of 100,000 new residents crashing into our pastures. As we…
Relatively StableWe Are All Watching the Same Shoreline
We Are All Watching the Same Shoreline This week I did something I don't usually do — I went down a rabbit hole that started with my clients asking about rain…
Relatively StableYou’re Not Lost, You’re Just Relocating
You're Not Lost, You're Just Relocating We’ve been taught that running is a sign of weakness, a character flaw, or a symptom of fear. But if we look at the…
Relatively StableThe Witness
Bearing Witness — What It Means to Be Seen, to See Others, and to See Yourself This week in Stable Roots, Kim Carter writes about witnessing — what it truly…
Relatively StableThe Biological Prayer
The world is talking. It has always been talking. We are the only species that decided, somewhere along the way, to stop transmitting. This week's episode is…
Relatively StableThe Invisible Altar
A few weeks before our cat Indigo was diagnosed with FIP, she started purring constantly. Every night, pressed against me, making biscuits on the duvet. I…
Relatively StableThe Nutrients of Disruption
The Nutrients of Disruption When we arrived at the new farm, I thought my first responsibility would be to maintain the tidy lawns and pastures that had been…
Relatively StableThe Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room In this episode, I read a new essay from Stable Roots written in response to an anonymous letter that arrived at our farm. The letter…
Relatively StableThat Time I Bought a Cat
That Time I Bought a Cat (And Then Purchased Another) In this week’s episode, I’m reading my latest Stable Roots essay — a piece about cats, yes, but also…
Relatively StableThe 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…
Relatively StableCultivating 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…
Relatively StableWhy 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…
Relatively StableKeeping 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…
Relatively StableThe 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…
Relatively StableCats 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…
Relatively StableA 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…
Relatively StableFlagged, 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…
Relatively StableWe're Still Standing
In this week’s episode, Kim reads her newest Stable Roots essay, We’re Still Standing — a piece shaped by loss, loyalty, and the beauty of still being here…
Relatively StableFrom Desperation to Thanksgiving
From Desperation to Thanksgiving: All That Talk of Harvests Isn’t Just Poetry In this week’s episode, Kim reflects on what it means to move from desperation…
Relatively StableDon't Look Too Far Into the Woods
Stable Roots: Don’t Look Too Far Into the Woods: Notes from a haunted year at the edge of the trees This week’s episode moves through fear and faith, fences…
Relatively StableThe Cost of Moving On
In this episode, Kim Carter reads her latest essay from Stable Roots—a meditation on land, belonging, and what it means to build something that lasts in a…
Relatively StableEven the Ordinary Days Are Holy
Even the Ordinary Days are Holy: What the move, the herd, and the sink at Lavender Hill are teaching me about rest In this episode, I explore how the rhythms…
Relatively StableThe Ghosts of This Farm Speak to Me
In this episode, I read my latest Stable Roots piece, The Ghosts of This Farm Speak to Me — a story about loss, land, and what it means to finally arrive. It…
Relatively StableThe Safe I Can't Unlock
Every day the farmhouse is emptier as the storage containers are packed. What does it mean to move something that feels fixed? What does it mean to move a…
Relatively StableHands on the Rope
If you’ve been following our journey, you know Bramblewood Stables is in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime move to Lavender Hill farm after losing our lease…
Relatively StableHearing our Ghosts
Hearing Our Ghosts: Walking the Threshold from Grief to Hope This episode is a voiceover essay on living at the edge of loss and still choosing to move…
Relatively Stable4.3 Acres of Farmland Disappear Every Minute
🎙️ Relatively Stable — Special Voiceover Episode This episode is different. It’s not an interview or a roundtable conversation. It’s a voiceover—me, in the…
Relatively StableA Last Chance to Save Bramblewood Stables
A Last Chance to Save Bramblewood Stables The land we stand on is being sold to the highest bidder — and the highest bidder will almost certainly be a…
Relatively StableCaring in a Carefree World
Caring in a Carefree World: A week of colic, caretaking, and unexpected grace This week in Relatively Stable, I’m reading the latest installment from Stable…
Relatively StableInstinct is a Language
Instinct is a Language: Reading storms, following cats, and finding safety in our skins This week’s essay moves through thorny fields, shifting weather, and…
Relatively StableMaking Friends With the Wasps
Making Friends with the Wasps The long, slow work of mending -- From the Stable Roots series | Read-aloud edition This week’s episode walks gently into the…
Relatively StableNot a Mirror, Nor a Mystic
🎙️ Relatively Stable – New EpisodeNot a Mirror, Nor a Mystic Inside the Unspoken Dynamics of Healing, Projection, and Power in Equine-Assisted Services 🧠 In…
Relatively StableSlow Horsemanship
🎧 Slow Horsemanship, Rooted Systems, Living Work An ancient rhythm, a living system, and a slow return to what matters. In this episode, Kim shares the living…
Relatively StableThe Boundary is the Lesson
The Boundary is the Lesson: You can't ride every story home, and that's not a failure. What if the bravest thing you could do with a horse is stand still…
Relatively StableWhere the Wild Roses Grow
Episode Title: Where the Wild Roses Grow (Voiceover) Show Notes: This week, I’m sharing something different, a eulogy in remembrance of a woman who mothered a…
Relatively StableCaitlee Greene
Episode 7: Tending the Roots with Caitlee Greene of Greene Roots LLC What if healing isn't something we chase, but something we come home to? In this episode…
Relatively StableThe Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth: A Praise Song for Water, Horses, and Coming Home This week’s VoiceOver is a meditation on the most sacred and overlooked element: water…
Relatively StableWhen the Bough Breaks
When the Bough Breaks (The Devil You Didn't See Coming) The sound of a tree limb breaking high overhead has always made me run. This episode is about what…