The alarm went off at 5 AM. Being Sunday I was initially thinking of sleeping for some more time. But the blogging challenge which I have embraced pushed me to get up. I sat down with a cup of coffee but I was not able to start. Finally, I picked one question my younger daughter had asked the day before while we were at the dinner table. It was after a gap that all four of us were together and my daughters had dimmed all the lights and it was a candle-lit dinner party. Thanks to my wifey she had prepared something exotic. My wife knows it well, ” The key to our hearts looks a whole lot like a plate of pasta“. Amidst the dinner my elder daughter was explaining some things and she used the word volition. My younger daughter was quick to pick it up and she posed it to us “What is the meaning of volition?”.
I was pretty confident that my elder daughter would not go to the stadium with my wife and younger daughter this Sunday. I thought I would give her company at home. I was making fun of her commitment the previous night when she said that come what may she would join my wife for the stadium trip. Dan Ariely said it and I paraphrased that the person who goes to bed and who gets up are entirely different persons. Thinking that I would sit and continue my blogging, I was determined to continue the blog. That is when everything changed for me in a moment. In came my younger daughter with a special card (Father’s Day special) which she had designed along with her sister. I was floored and I read through whatever she had written and it gave me that RICH feeling. I was happy that I could follow some bit of my father’s footsteps.
I decided to join my wife and daughters for the morning trip to the stadium where my younger daughter was getting coaching. I left my blog writing mid-way, took a bath and in the next 10 minutes was ready to be them driving in the car. We had a good walk around the place and I noticed the stadium, particularly the sports arena and people running, jogging and playing lifted me. Maybe some childhood memories emerge when I am in the arena. I used to participate in lots of sports activities, particularly track and field events. The long jump was one of my favourites as well. My elder daughter by now I noticed had come to the sports arena to have her breakfast from a well-known South Indian restaurant. Her face lit up when she tasted khara bath and so I stopped after my second scoop with the spoon.
There was also a nice gentleman who offered to wait for his order and asked us to get our coffee, even though he was ahead in the line and his order was taking time. He had ordered 12 cups of coffee. I thanked him and shared with my wife and daughter about that kind soul and told them that we should pay this forward. After all human beings are inherently social and trusting animals.
There were moments of laughter during the day when my wife struggled with Google Maps and her instant reaction was “my brain is not braining” ( special word). My younger daughter continued with ” Lift is not lifting” and finally they nailed it with me when they told me that you have become ” Predictably unpredictable”. My decision to go along with them can be attributed to my thought of having a good time with the family and other things can wait.
Volition means the faculty or power of using one’s will. Volition is therefore an act of a person who knows what he is doing, and who, in knowing what he does, knows the end which his action is adapted to attain. I was happy that I acted with my volition against completing that blog in the morning. Instead, I completed it in the evening. Acting with volition in my view today gave me happiness. Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. I also learned from my daughter the deeper meaning of Volition on this Father’s Day.
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