My son asked me why I still wake at 5am, this is what I told him

My lastborn, the one who still cannot decide what to do with his life, he came to the veranda this morning. I was sitting with my Guardian and my tea, watching the sun come up over the road. He asked me, Baba, why do you still wake at 5am when you don have anywhere to go? I just laughed small.

I told him, my son, in my time in the civil service, I learned that the early morning is when a man can think clearly. Before the phone start ringing, before the neighbour start playing music, before the world begin to demand things from you. That quiet time is where you plan your day and your life. Even now that I am retired, I still wake at 5 because the habit of discipline does not retire. The Yoruba say, bi oba ti ri ni mo ti n ri. What I have seen over the years is that young people today are always rushing, always chasing, but they don take time to sit still and think. A word is enough for the wise.

He just nodded and went back inside. I don know if the message entered. But I keep planting seeds. One day, when he is my age, he will remember this morning. That is how life works. The lessons we resist today become the ones we lean on tomorrow.