The Strawberry Between the Tigers: A Tale of Joy, Presence, and Our Birthright to Pleasure.

There is an old Taoist story that goes like this:

A man is walking through the forest when he’s suddenly chased by a tiger. He runs for his life and comes to the edge of a cliff. Desperate, he climbs down and finds himself hanging from a vine. But below him, another tiger waits. Two tigers—one above, one below.

As he clings to the vine, two mice—one black, one white—begin nibbling at it. The vine is weakening. Time is running out. And then, he notices a wild strawberry growing nearby. He reaches out, plucks it, and eats it.

It is the most delicious strawberry he has ever tasted.

This story is not about escaping danger. It’s not about transcending fear. It’s about tasting the strawberry. Fully. While the tigers wait.

So many of us spend our lives between tigers—grasping for control, bracing for what’s next, holding on tight. The tigers might be our past and future, fear and uncertainty, grief and longing. The mice remind us that time is always moving. Everything is impermanent.

And still: there is the strawberry.

It is easy, in a world that celebrates productivity and urgency, to forget that joy is sacred. That beauty and delight are not just indulgences, but invitations. To pause. To savor. To live.

The man in the story doesn’t know how the story ends. He doesn’t know if he’ll be saved. But in that moment, he chooses presence. He chooses pleasure. He chooses life.

We often postpone joy—waiting for the inbox to be empty, the healing to be complete, the relationship to be figured out, the bills to be paid. But life doesn’t begin when the tigers are gone.

Life is here. In the taste of the strawberry.

This story reminds us that allowing joy is not naïve—it is wise. Allowing pleasure is not frivolous—it is sacred. It is what keeps us human in the face of uncertainty. It is what roots us in the present when the past and future tug at our hands.

Joy does not erase suffering, but it expands our capacity to be with it. Pleasure does not fix the world, but it grounds us in what is worth protecting.

There will always be tigers. There will always be mice. But there will also be strawberries.

Let us not forget to taste them.

Let us remember that joy is not a luxury. It is our birthright.

And it is, perhaps, the very place where life truly shows up.