There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly.
Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.
― Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World
Are you waiting for things to improve so you can feel better again?
Will you finally be able to relax once you know when stores/schools/travel can safely reopen?
Are you pinning your hopes on the possibility of electing a new administration in November?
Is your jaw tight, your knuckles white, your breath held? Do your thoughts run out of control? Is your mind fuzzy and your attention worse than ever? And do you believe this will change just as soon as the pandemic is over?
This is what is known as Destination Addiction, the belief that once I arrive at some future point or state of being, then I will be okay, then I can be happy and at peace. This is what AA calls stinkin' thinkin' and it stinks because it is a lie. Someday never really arrives because it is dependent on conditions to be a certain way, and that is so unpredictable. True happiness and peace of mind are states we already have access to, and they don't require conditions to be a certain way in order to be known (except for the condition of receptivity). In fact, it has been my experience - especially lately - that the worse the situation, the easier I can connect into the sweet, deep well of being that is my true nature. Yours, too.
That's the strawberry Pema is referring to. The woman in her story is clearly aware of the tigers above and below, and the mouse chewing away at her support system, yet she is so awake that she also sees the strawberry clump at hand, ripe and ready for the picking. She doesn't say, "ooh nice looking strawberries, I must get some once I've dealt with these tigers." She also does not eat the strawberry and think, "maybe this will help take my mind off the tigers for a little while." No. Right in middle of the "full catastrophe" (as Jon Kabat-Zinn calls it), she simply eats a strawberry because it is there, she can reach it, and it tastes very good.
Do the tigers make eating the strawberry sweeter? Maybe. The point is to avoid obsessing on the dangers and stay open to the good. The urgency of the situation is real, the odds of dying are high (100% for all of us), and there really is no time to waste. It may be Ani Pema who advised us to "practice as if your hair is on fire," I'm not sure, but if the pandemic isn't singeing your head a little right now you are still asleep.
You don't have to wait for life to "return to normal," whatever that might be for you. You can find the strawberry right now.