Growth may be experienced as a painful process, leaving one soft and vulnerable when one has to break through a barrier between self and the environment. If the intended outcome is to recreate that toughness, then the process is destined to repeat. But we are not built like insects – and are we are seldom at war with anyone other than ourselves.
Encasing myself in hardness tempered by fear has restrained more than it has protected. Now I chose to cast it away, moving with the sensitivity of any naked creature. I leave my exuviae for the elements – knowing that the traces will fade and become windblown with the dust.
