"Because horror on earth is real and it is every day. It is like a flower or like a sun; it cannot be contained"(186). Is this a metaphor or a simile?

The Alice Sebold novel, "Lovely Bones," is about a 14 year-old girl named Susie Salmon. Susie has been murdered and while in heaven can see her friends and family still living.  She sees their struggles to solve her murder and sees their pain and sorrow.  Susie follows the map and arrives at the field.  She meets Flora Hernandez who tells her the others will be there soon. 

"And as Flora twirled, other girls and women came through the field in all directions.  Our heartache poured into one another like water from cup to cup.  Each time I told my story, I lost a bit, the smallest drop of pain.  It was that day that I knew I wanted to tell the story of my family;  Because horror on Earth is real and it is every day.  It is like a flower or like the sun; it cannot be contained."

The quotation on page 186 is a literary term described as a simile.  A simile is used to compare one thing to another using the words "like" or "as." A metaphor also compares two things that are compared, but "like or "as" are not used. This quotation uses "like" so it is a simile.