I Thought I Found One Hell of a Spider

Dear Friend,

I thought I found one hell of a spider today. 😂

Diva and I were walking across the yard to check on something in one of the trees when I caught sight of what looked like a set of big brown legs wrapped around the edge of a leaf.

Now listen. I live in south Alabama. I know better than to go sticking my face toward unidentified legs in a tree. I did it anyway. Because apparently curiosity is stronger than self-preservation around here. 😂

I eased around to the other side of the leaf expecting to find some enormous spider sitting there waiting to make me regret every decision that had brought my face within biting distance of it.

But it wasn’t a spider.

It was an empty cicada shell.

And I know that doesn’t sound particularly exciting. I’ve seen cicada shells my whole life. If you grew up around here, you probably have too. We used to find them stuck to tree trunks, fences, porch posts… wherever those loud little boogers decided to leave them.

I don’t remember ever really LOOKING at one, though.

So there I stood, taking pictures of this empty bug shell from every direction like I’d just made a major scientific discovery. 😂

Friend, have you ever actually looked at one up close?

It’s WILD.

The little legs are still there. The tiny claws are still wrapped around the leaf. The whole body is sitting there almost perfectly intact, except for the split where the cicada crawled right out of it.

I knew that’s what happened. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have always known that’s what a cicada shell was. But knowing something and actually stopping long enough to SEE it are two completely different things.

This little creature had crawled up that tree, grabbed hold of a leaf, climbed right out of the body it had been living in and flown away.

And all that was left behind was this perfect little empty version of what it used to be, still hanging on.

That’s pretty damn cool.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Miss Sas is about to turn a cicada shell into a lesson about letting go of our old selves, spreading our wings and becoming who we were meant to be.

Nope. 😂 Not today.

Sometimes I think we’ve gotten entirely too determined to make everything MEAN something.

Sometimes a sunset can just be pretty.

Sometimes a flower can just smell good.

Sometimes a weird bug shell hanging underneath a leaf can just make a 42-year-old woman squat underneath a tree taking seventeen pictures because HOW IN THE HELL DID I NEVER NOTICE ALL OF THIS BEFORE?

That’s enough.

There’s so much going on around us every single day that we’ve seen a thousand times without ever really seeing it.

I’ve heard cicadas every summer for as long as I can remember. I’ve found their shells before. I’ve probably walked past hundreds of them.

But today I saw some creepy little legs curling around a leaf, thought I was about to meet the spider from hell, got nosy anyway, and stopped long enough to really look.

And for a few minutes, I wasn’t thinking about anything I needed to do.

I was just standing under a tree with Diva, looking at something cool we found in our own yard.

I reckon ordinary days are full of things like that.

We just don’t always stop long enough to notice them.