One morning, a man who took great pride in his lawn noticed dandelions had taken over part of his lawn. He tried everything he knew to get rid of them but they kept growing back. This made him really annoyed, so he went out and immediately pulled them all out with his hands. But they just grew right back. So after a few weeks of frustration and anger with this situation, he went to the store and bought some weed killer. He sprayed it all over the place and it worked for a while, but it also damaged the lawn. And then after it rained, the dandelions grew back again. So frustrated, he decided the problem must be the type of soil they were growing in. So he pulled up the entire lawn, put down new soil turf.
This time he thought, I've got this licked. But within a few days, dandelions were growing up through the new grass. Now he was getting really frustrated and stressed. He concluded that the dandelions must be coming from the neighbor's yard. So he went on a secret campaign to kill all the neighbor’s dandelions in the whole neighborhood. He weeded, he sweated, he sprayed, he snuck around in the night. But a year later, after totally exhausting himself, he still had dandelions growing up through his lawn. Finally, he called a person at the Department of Agriculture. He explained that he tried everything to get rid of those dandelions. They were ruining the look of his lawn and he was frustrated because they just kept growing back. He asked, "What should I do to get rid of those dandelions?"
The man said, "I suggest you learn to love them. They're beautiful in their own way, and they will always be a part of your lawn, whether you like it or not.”
Moral: There are things that arise in life that we just can't control no matter how much we try. And as they arise, it's best to remember that we do have a choice in how we handle the situation. We can resist it, or we can accept it. We can make ourselves miserable and agitated about what's happening or we can learn to find peace and even joy amongst the dandelions of our lives. So if we can set aside our ideas of how we think life should or shouldn't be, and be flexible in accepting things as they are, we will find greater degrees of peace and joy in our lives.