Hello and welcome to another episode of Mindfulness Plus.

I'm your host Thomas McConkey.

Thanks so much for listening today.

So friends, here we are in the times of COVID-19 quarantine day number 10 million trillion. It all just feels like one big long day to me now.

And I'm noticing about this big long long day that it is full of, what shall we call it, OCD, fretting, heightened germ consciousness.

I was outside watering some new grass seedlings that I planted, and then I opened the back gate with my right hand,

then reached for something in my pocket with my right hand, and then thought, oh, but my brother

lives in the back unit and he opens this gate. Does the gate have virus on it, and now does my right pocket have

virus in it? Now do I need to go wash my hands and change my pants and et cetera, et cetera?

And that was just like an hour ago, and I chanced it. I'm wearing the same pants. I thought

I'd roll those dice. It seemed like a good bet. But I noticed that I

probably have thoughts like that a hundred or more times a day, and it can be exhausting.

I thought of this quote. I read this quote in a book by a Sufi master by the name of Kabir Helminsky.

He's contemporary. He's a living Sufi master and really quite a delightful being who I've mentioned in previous episodes.

And, you know, this line he writes in his book, Living Presence, fills me with delight.

And it feels like good medicine in these quarantine times.

I wanted to share it with you.

Helminsky writes,

Whoever makes all cares into a single care, the care for simply being present will be relieved from all cares by that presence, which is a reflection of spirit.

One more time.

Whoever makes all cares into a single care, the care for simply being present, will be

relieved from all cares by that presence, which is a reflection of spirit. So take that in for a

...