Strawberry Deficiency

It's an old parable, but Pema tells it well:

A woman is running from tigers.  She runs and she runs, and the tigers are getting closer and closer.  She comes to the edge of a cliff.  She sees a vine there, so she climbs down and holds on to it.  Then she looks down and sees that there are tigers below her as well.  At the same time, she notices a little mouse gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging.  She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries emerging from a nearby clump of grass.  She looks up, she looks down, and she looks at the  mouse.  Then she picks a strawberry, pops it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly.


This might be the only moment of our life, this might be the only strawberry we'll ever eat.  We could feel depressed about this or we could finally appreciate it.  We could delight in the preciousness of every single moment.
     - Pema Chodron, Comfortable With Uncertainty


It was a tigers and mice day, without a doubt.  I am very, very tired - that soul kind of tired that goes beyond exhaustion and points to the quality of the day, not necessarily the quantity of hours work (although in this case, quantity definitely exceeded manufacturer's specs for body and soul).  But my state of being tonight is not a direct result of the tigers and mice, but is due instead to a strawberry deficiency.
I never stopped to be refilled and nourished - I just kept running to and hanging over the cliff, as a way to survive the tigers.

Silly me - these days always end the same way, unless we stop to savor the strawberries.

Did you get your strawberry today?

With love,
Kim