“Happiness is not a stage in life that you get to, but it is a state of mind you maintain. So you can be happy, whatever stage of life you're at; even if you hate it and are working to change your life.”
by Innocent Mwatsikesimbe — from The Vision, chapter 66
The walk-through
A stage is somewhere you arrive; a state is something you hold. Innocent moves happiness from the first to the second: “Happiness is not a stage in life that you get to, but it is a state of mind you maintain.”
The surprising part follows: you can be happy “whatever stage of life you’re at; even if you hate it and are working to change your life.” Wanting a different life and being happy in this one stop being opposites.
He found it by going back to a place he’d left miserable — and feeling glad to be there. What he’d lost the first time wasn’t the place; it was security, freedom, progress. Same rooms, changed meaning. Which quietly moves the responsibility too: if happiness is a state, it’s kept alive the way anything is — by the one holding it.
AI-composed from Innocent's text, reviewed and refined by Innocent.
More from this source
- As still waters run deep, calm minds think deep too.
- Change is a friend to a life with a vision, but an enemy to an aimless person.
- Creative genius is not a place you reach, but a state of mind you maintain.
- My idea of outliving is not living more years, but deeper moments. Seizing the moment and appreciating my freedom to live.
- You are never useless. You just need to find your place.