about me

Three years ago, my world split open and I had no choice but to accept that foundational things I thought I knew to be true about myself were fundamentally not true. In the time since I have fallen in love, experienced estrangement, fallen out of love, discovered my neurodivergence, rediscovered magic, learned to hold two contradicting truths simultaneously, and started the work of integrating my fractured identity, befriending my shadow, and healing my inner child with the help of therapy, movement, and nature.

 

One year ago, I met an oracle who drives an Uber and reads the stars and she told me about a book I was going to write. I didn't understand what she meant at first and then six months ago when autistic burnout crashed my body and nervous system and I had no choice but to take a significant amount of time off from work, a series of five unrelated events were presented to me by the universe over a single weekend and, when the fifth arrived, I suddenly and clearly saw the shape and scope of the book.

 

Unfortunately, the work of squeezing thought into word and out of my fingertips into text is proving difficult, so I have created this space to provide myself with structure and hold myself accountable for making real this thing that already exists but requires coaxing to reveal itself. Public vulnerability is terrifying but may also prove to be liberating. If I have nothing to hide, I can be my full self for the first time in my life and I don't know what that would feel like, but I think it might be less exhausting.

 

So here goes. All the words and images on this site are mine, as are the memories and feelings I attach to them, so I acknowledge that my implicit bias colors all of it and take ownership of that. It is my story, and mine alone. Perhaps it will resonate for you.

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Rachel Stavely

August 2026