"In the popular imagination the butterfly has long served as a symbol of transformation and change. We are awed by its progression - from egg, to caterpillar, pupa, to winged adult. It is easy to see why the butterfly reminds us to change and grow, to evolve gracefully through the stages of life in order to one one day emerge in a more glorious form.

The cicada, in contrast, offers a more radical and challenging symbol. Cicadaʼs have no pupal state. They transform abruptly and mysteriously from nymph to airborne adult in a single molt. Depending on species, they may spend one to nine or more years as underground larvae before eventually emerging into the heat as a singing scion of summer.

The cicada reminds us that sometimes we must embrace radical change, rather than gentle transformation. There is a time to cast off the old and break with the known. The skulls and flowers included in this illustration are reminders of the way death yields new life, the changing of season, and the inexorable march of time." -Siolo Thompson