The Mullah & His Flower Garden

Mullah Nasruddin had put a lot of effort into starting a beautiful flower garden and was eagerly awaiting the results. One morning he woke up and the garden was in full bloom. But it was filled not just with the flowers he had planted but also with a yellow blanket of dandelions, which he didn’t like. After pondering his problem, he sought out the advice of famous gardeners everywhere about how to get rid of these dandelions, which were overrunning his garden. Try as he might, none of the advice worked; in fact the dandelions seemed to feed on these efforts to get rid of them. Finally, in apparent desperation, he sought out the advice of the royal gardener at the sheik’s palace, a man reputed to be very wise. The royal gardener made many suggestions, but the Mullah had already tried them all. Finally, after sitting in silence for many hours, the gardener looked at the Mullah and said, “Well, since you can’t get rid of the dandelions, perhaps you’d better learn to love them.” “That’s just it,” said the Mullah, “I already do.”

My retelling, with a twist, of a famous Mullah Nasruddin story. Taken from my essay Awakening to the Miracle of Ordinary Life.