Stalking Cacti

I've been closely watching a cactus in my neighbourhood these past few days.  Every year almost without warning it throws out a beautiful big fragrant white flower, then just as quickly it's gone again.  That seems to be the cacti way.  I've never managed to get a picture of it though I surely have tried.  This year was to be the exception.  I've been stalking that plant with my camera!

Well, the World had a message for me through the Lens as it usually seems to, but this one wasn't what I expected at all.  That potentially magnificent cactus bud simply did not open!  It went from a fat juicy bud almost bursting at the seams to a withered up dead appendage, in just two days.   I had even visited it after dark in case it was one of the night blooming Cereus, but no, not even at night was it about to open.  I was/am so disappointed.

I got to thinking what could the message be here for me.  What  point of view, or what metaphor, was the World offering me?  Then it hit me:  what if I died, bursting with unrealized potential?  It probably wouldn't concern me at the time, I'd be dead, right?  But what about the World around me?  We all came into this World with  unique gifts and talents which, if we don't discover and use them, could the Universe/God, family, friends, or even our community,  be just as disappointed as I was when the bud withheld it's gift from me?

Popular author and public speaker, Wayne Dyer, often reminds us 'not to die with our music still in us' and now, more than ever I can see his point.