How to be mindful of the present moment

The Strawberry: A Story About Stress, Change and Being Alive

There is an old Zen story.

A man is being chased by a tiger.

He runs and runs until he reaches the edge of a steep cliff. With nowhere else to go, he climbs down, gripping a branch growing out of the rock.

Above him, the tiger waits.

Hundreds of metres below, he can see the bottom of the valley.

As he hangs there, the branch begins to crack.

Suddenly, he notices something.

A small wild strawberry growing within reach.

He picks it.

He eats it.

And says: how sweet it is.

What the story shows us

Nothing about his situation has improved.

The danger is still there.
The outcome is still uncertain.

And yet, something has changed.

For a moment, he is no longer living in fear of what has happened or what might happen next.

He is simply here. In the moment.

Tasting the strawberry.

The certainty we try to avoid

We spend much of our lives waiting for things to settle.

For problems to resolve.
For clarity to arrive.
For a goal to be achieved.
For life to feel safe.

But it rarely does — not completely.

There is always something:

• uncertain
• unfinished
• fragile

The truth we resist is simple:

Your situation will change.
Again and again.

That is the only certainty.

The mistake we so often make

Because of this, we often live elsewhere.

In the past:

• replaying
• regretting
• wishing things had been different

Or in the future:

• anticipating
• worrying
• hoping for a version of life that has not yet arrived

And in doing so, we miss the only place life actually happens.

Here. Right now. In this very moment.

A different way of living

The story does not suggest that we ignore danger, difficulty, the past, the future.

It suggests something more subtle.

Even in the middle of uncertainty — even in the presence of fear —
there is still a moment available to you.

A breath.
A taste.
A conversation.
A piece of light.

Something small. Something real.

And if you can return to that moment, even briefly, something steadies.

Not the world.

But you.

At every stage of life

This is true, no matter where you are in life.

In your twenties, when everything feels open and uncertain, and you wonder if you are falling behind — the strawberry is the life you are already living, not the one you think you should have.

In your thirties and forties, when responsibility grows and time feels scarce —
the strawberry is the moment you are in, not the endless list of what still needs to be done.

Later in life, when loss, change, or reflection become more present — the strawberry is what remains, here and now, still quietly available.

A quiet gratitude

To be alive at all is not a small thing.

Even in difficulty, even in uncertainty, there is something here that did not have to exist:

• this moment
• this breath
• this chance to notice anything at all

Gratitude does not remove pain.

But it changes the way we look at it. The more grateful we are, the more beauty we see.

Closing

The aim is not to eliminate stress.

Or to wait for life to become perfect.

It is simply this:

Not to regret the past.
Not to wish away the present.
Not to live only for a future that has not yet come.

But to return, again and again, to where you are.

And, when you can —

to taste the strawberry.

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Small choices. Better days. Simply better living.

“Forever is composed of nows.”   — Emily Dickinson