How Sweet is the Berry!

I have read this story long back. Over the years I have told it ample number of times to many friends and also ample number of times to myself (when situations seem out of my hands).

Once upon a time a man was wondering in the woods. He was chased by a tiger. Chased so, he ran and finally found a cliff and a strong vine running downhill. He took hold of it and started descending down the cliff. The tiger stood at the top of the cliff looking at the man with interest. Half through the descent the man looked down. There was standing another tiger looking at him with expectant eyes. Stuck between these two tigers the man just hung by the vine hoping for one of the tigers to move away. Suddenly, he could hear some noise and looking above saw one black and a white mice trying to cut the vine. It seemed like imminent death.
Hanging thus the man suddenly could smell something sweet. Looking sideways he saw this wild berry plant bearing a bright ripe red berry. The man was mesmerised by its beauty. He pulled it gently and put it in his mouth. It had the divine test as of the wild berries which get ripe in wilderness. He exclaimed, "how sweet is the berry"!

They interpret the tiger up the cliff as past and the awaiting tiger downhill as future. Both may seem scary. The vine is like the time-line. The mice are the Yin-Yang forces playing their roles. And the berry is the "present". In spite of everything the berry is sweet...