💌 Letters from the Rebuild #25

Dead On Update (DOU), Nervous System Magic, and the Quiet Miracles of Not Spiraling

There was a time — not even that long ago — when a single unexpected problem could completely derail me. And for the longest time, I never considered what-or-why that had anything to do with my writing career.

But, you know the kind of derailment I mean:

The frantic spiral.
The full-body panic.
The rage-crying. (or in my case rage-cussing… not my best trait to be sure LOL 🙄🫤😂)
The “I can’t deal with ONE MORE THING” meltdown.
The overwhelm shutdown that lasts hours… or days.

Old-Stacy lived there.
She didn’t choose it — she was conditioned into it.

And recently, I met a situation that would’ve absolutely wrecked her.

Let me set the stage:

I got a new NVMe drive. (I was SO excited!! - yes, I am THAT geek lol 🤣)
Needed to update the BIOS.
MSI motherboards are notorious for being finicky with BIOS updates (something I knew and chose to ignore because optimism is a hell of a drug).

Hit update.

And then:

💀 Motherboard: D.O.A.
(Dead On Arrival)

OR, in this case…

💀 D.O.U.
(Dead On Update — my new personal acronym 😂)

Either way:
My whole PC… dead.
The tower that runs my businesses?
My writing?
My editing?
My entire digital universe?
Even my gaming!? 🫢😲

Gone.
Silent.
A $1500+ paperweight.

Old-me?
She would’ve shattered.

But New-Me…
Rewilded-Me…
Healing-Me…

🕯️ This post is part of the Letters from the Rebuild series—my open love letter series to those of us rebuilding something sacred from the ashes. Career. Identity. Voice. Hope. These letters are the embers I send out into the dark, just in case you need to hear: You’re not alone. 🐦‍🔥