Finding beauty in a dark world with a Golden Torch

Sometimes our country and the world seem to be sinking into a dark place where evil and hatred are triumphing over goodness and love, resulting in a pervading sense of hopelessness and depression.

But sometimes all it takes for us is to walk out into our garden as the sun rises to feel our spirits soar as we see flower blooms reaching up to the sun.  This morning I photographed our pitahaya flower joyously receiving the first rays of the sun.

See many more photos of our pitahaya in my post, “A pitahaya summer interlude.”

Also see “Actividades en el cultivo de pitahaya“* and “Propiedades y curativas y medicinales de la pitahaya fruta de dragón.”*

One week ago we were treated to following throughout the day a double bloom of our Golden Torch cactus, Echinopsis spachiana, native to South America, especially Argentina where grows up to a height of 7 feet.

We noticed the beginning of the double bloom early in the morning.

The blooms are lovely and exquisite and have an inner beauty waiting to be born.

(Click on the images to see them enlarged)

The pistil (female part) reaches up searching for the first rays of the sun, while surrounded by stamens that dance in the breeze.

The sun begins to break through the high clouds and a bee is attracted.

The flower basks in the glory of the sun as it is pollinated with the help of the bee.

It is now at its gloriously, exquisite peak.

But the pistil begins to weaken and lower as it feebly tries to follow the sun.

By the following morning, the bloom had passed even as the pistil persevered.

And I remembered a quote from Professor Dumbledore, heard in the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.“*

Encore: See Night-blooming cactus time-lapse: Echinopsis spachiana* by Laura McC

*This is a link to a YouTube video.