There is a story of a woman who is being chased by tigers. She is running as fast as she can, trying to escape the deathly interaction with these ferocious beasts. She arrives to the edge of a cliff and the tigers are quickly approaching. She has no choice but to climb down the edge of the cliff—or face certain doom. As she leaps she grabs onto a vine, and yet she still hears the tigers that she thought she had out smarted. She looks down and sees many more tigers down below her. As she grabs more tightly to the rope she looks up and sees that the tigers above have caught back up to her swatting their paws in hunger in her direction. The tigers above and below are relentless and determined for certain victory. As she grips with (literally) all that is happening she notices a mouse gnawing away at the vine she is holding and seeing that he is only moments before eating all the way through the vine. Out of the corner of her eye she sees to her side a patch of green and a juicy sweet strawberry within reach. She looks up, she looks down, she looks at the mouse, and reaches for sweet delight and eats the strawberry enjoying it thoroughly. —My adaptation of an old eastern tale
Life is so vast and complex from moment to moment. Challenges arise within us and around us all the time and yet we are to live our life in the face of all of these experiences. We are asked to live bravely and couragously in the midst of all that comes our way. The root of courage, cour, means heart—and so we are asked to climb and navigate the mountains of life from our heart.
There will always be lions chasing us (challenges) there will always be the vine (security, attachments) that we think we can hold onto and the reminder (mouse) that we cannot hold onto anything. Most importantly there is love (the strawberry) always within reach and there to keep enough sweetness present to ground us, heal us, and keep us fresh and awake in our lives.
It is this sweetness that allows us to persevere and to step into life boldly knowing that it is why we are here. Life is sweet and precious and we must continue to light a path for ourselves and all others who wish to find and taste the sweetness.
God has written a thousand promises all over your heart
That say, Life, life, life is far too sacred to ever end.--Rumi
