A few years back I had enough luck to run into cicada post-molting shells. I found literally hundreds of them on a very small island located about 100 meters off the coast of the island of Rab, Croatia. A crazy sight indeed - dozens of pine trees filled with these shells all over the island.
These cicada shells are perfect to use as an analogy for our personal psychological growth. There comes a time in our lives when we have to shed our old skin and just let everything behind and start the whole thing over. These times are usually accompanied with emotional pain. Hopefully, when these kind of things happen to us, we learn that when we got hurt the most, it was supposed to be a space to find out about most thing about yourself, and get to know how to live with everything that happened in your life. Make peace with yourself.
As well as these shells cling to the place where they were shed, we cling to our fears and insecurities. The best thing that we have is an opportunity to leave our fears and bad things behind (as cicadas leave their shells), but in a constructive reflection place in our memories, and move one to another place of emotional maturity and acceptance.
Of course, it's not easy to just 'get emotionally mature'. That is a process that lasts for moths and years, and it takes a lot of self-reflection about emotional life. And, of course, having conversations with family and friends that show understanding for your life situations. I am very grateful for my difficult times, and for the people who were there when it was necessary. Don't get me wrong, I don't think of myself as emotionally mature person, but I definitely try to understand my reactions and life situations more than ever before. It makes life more understandable.
Have a nice day everybody. :)