Hello and welcome to Mindfulness Plus.

My name is Thomas Mekonki and I'm your host.

It is November 9th, 2016, one day after the U.S. presidential elections. So it is not my job to get

political here. It is my job to get mindful. So in the spirit of getting mindful and being

present to what today is and what the future

might bring to us as U.S. citizens and citizens of the world, I wanted to share a story with

you that some of you might have heard, but nevertheless it occurred to me as I woke up this morning and was reflecting

on how I was feeling and how the world seemed to be feeling. It's the parable of a Taoist farmer.

So there's a Taoist farmer who is quite poor. He lives humbly and has very few possessions.

His most valuable possession is a horse, a strong, healthy horse that's quite valuable.

This horse runs away one day. And the neighbors hear about the news, and they come over to express their condolences.

They say, we hear that your horses run away.

We're so sorry to hear that.

What terrible news.

What bad luck.

And the Taoist farmer responds, good luck, bad luck, who's to say?

The next day, his horse returns unexpectedly, and it returns with a fleet of other horses,

six horses, so seven in total now. And this totally defies all

expectations. Neighbors thought that this farmer would be totally ruined. And instead, the next

day, he's multiplied his wealth and everything looks to be incredible against all odds. They come back, they visit his house and say,

we heard about the news. Look at this beautiful fleet of horses. We're so happy for you. What

amazing luck. And of course, the farmer says, good luck, bad luck. Who's to say? The farmer has a son who's set about breaking the horses in so that

...