It's April once again and it reminds me of one of my mom's flowering plants.  The picture above is a night-blooming cereus. It belongs to the flowering ceroid cacti family.  What is fascinating about the this flower is that it only blooms at night but then dies when morning comes.

This ceroid cactus displays flowers in clumps.  Once the flowers starts blooming, the plant will have flowers every night for about a week before it stops flowering.

Beautiful as they are yet they are only short lived.

I posted a picture in my gallery and I noticed one thing.

Did you see it?

There this hairy crawling caterpillar in one of the petals.  Looking at the bigger picture, it's not easily identifiable because the focus is on the flower's beauty.

This is a reminder that beauty does not last.  It is temporary.  Sometimes we miss the beauty of life because we are overwhelmed by things that goes on in our lives.  This flower shows us that even in the darkest hours of our lives, the saddest moments, times when we are down, there is beauty and hope.  Life is short but be beautiful anyway.  Be the beauty that shines even in life's dark and stormy days.  Like the caterpillar on the flower, troubles and problems come our way but be beautiful anyway.