The Strawberry: A reflection on presence and uncertainty
SEPTEMBER 2026 • ESSAY
THE MINDFUL EATING INSTITUTE OF SANTA BARBARA
The Strawberry
Notes on presence, uncertainty, and the sweetness of being here.
In her profound work The Wisdom of No Escape, Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön recounts a timeless story that speaks directly to how we navigate life when groundlessness arrives.
A woman walking across a field encounters tigers. She runs, with the tigers chasing closely behind. Arriving at the edge of a sheer cliff, she grabs hold of a wild vine and swings herself over the edge. Up above, the tigers pace and snarl. She looks down into the abyss below, only to discover another tiger waiting patiently at the bottom.
Suspended between two certain perils, she notices a mouse slowly beginning to gnaw away at the vine from which she hangs.
AN EXCERPT ON EMBRACING REALITY
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“Right beside her on the cliffside grew a luscious wild strawberry. Holding the vine with one hand, she reached out and plucked the strawberry with the other. She put it in her mouth and tasted it. How sweet it was.”
Holding Both the Tigers and the Fruit
At first glance, the parable might feel dramatic, perhaps even unsettling. Yet it holds a gentle mirror to the human condition. In life, we are often suspended between what has passed and what is yet to come - uncertainties above us, demands beneath us, and the steady passage of time represented by the mouse.
The instinct is to panic, to fix, or to numb ourselves to the vulnerability of being alive. Yet the woman in the story does something quietly extraordinary: she does not deny the tigers, nor does she miss the strawberry.
Mindfulness is not about waiting for all uncertainty to dissolve before we allow ourselves to live. It is the courageous practice of letting reality be as it is, while fully tasting the moment right in front of us.
01
Meeting Uncertainty
Acknowledge life's tensions without fighting them. When we stop struggling against reality, our energy returns to the present.
02
Savoring the Moment
The sweet strawberry is always present - in a warm sip of tea, a breath, a stranger's smile. May you allow yourself to taste it today.
Warmly with gratitude,
Petra
Story inspired by Pema Chödrön's The Wisdom of No Escape.
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