How I came to terms with my inner snob in a Wal-Mart shopping aisle — I have this memory. My husband decided our marriage was over while we were visiting his family in Istanbul, Turkey. Fourteen hours later, I was back home in America and driving through the ugly remnants of a cotton textile community in upstate South Carolina. The community that raised me. I…

My intuition screamed at me from the beginning to the bitter end — We overuse the term narcissism. A person with a brutal exterior bravado coupled with a toxic inferiority complex isn’t always a narcissist — but when you’ve encountered one, you know it. Or, at least you know after the fact. To make sense of what you experienced, you find yourself scrolling…

Pick your poison — About Me — Kimberly Carter I’m a writer who loves stories, community, and seeking hope in dark places.medium.com Latest Stories: In Search of Ghostly Voices at Poinsett Bridge An obscure forest landmark bridges the past with the present in Greenville County, South Carolinaklcarter.medium.com Honoring Our Dead in a New Age How our changing rituals allow space for honest emotionklcarter.medium.com

From the micro to the macro our senses are our base reality — I’m watching the play of light through the autumn-parched trees as I sit on the hill above the horse stable. “Horses have been on this earth five million years,” my partner in today’s coaching journey says. “Humans have been here for 300,000. …

How I use experience as an antidote to fear — A lot of things frighten me, but no one really knows that because I spend a lot of time soldiering on with a tough exterior. I’m good at soldiering, but being a great, big liar doesn’t do much to help me grow as a person. In an effort to get…

The stories we tell ourselves would make a really bad novel — I’m not going to bore you with a long introduction because I don’t need to waste your time telling you what you already know — if you spoke to another person like you talk at yourself all day, that person wouldn’t be your friend for very long. …

A crash course in nature, healing, and expansion — I teach people how to ride horses for a living, and I also partner with horses in helping humans achieve self-growth. Very little of that growth happens when we’re actually riding the horse. Most of it occurs when we’re doing mundane tasks that help keep the horses alive. And you…

An obscure forest landmark bridges the past with the present in Greenville County, South Carolina — What do Washington, DC and a winding trail in the middle of the Blue Ridge mountains have in common? Poinsett Bridge, a 200-year-old stone structure that is thought to be the oldest remaining bridge in South Carolina and possibly in America. …

How our changing rituals allow space for honest emotion — As I recently sat in a memorial service for a friend who died from a heroin overdose, I realized that each word from the speakers had meaning and value. The church was sparsely filled. The service organic, raw, and charged with honesty and vulnerability. …