Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of

“Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind.” Thus wrote Alice Meynell, the poet and thinker whose words flow like quiet rivers through the valleys of the human spirit. In this single line lies an ocean of truth—simple, yet profound. She teaches us that happiness is not governed by what happens to us, but by what moves within us. Life’s outer storms may rage, yet if the inner tides remain steady, the soul can dwell in peace. The wise of every age have known this secret, though few have mastered it: the mind is both the birthplace and the destroyer of joy.

The ancients spoke of this same wisdom in their own tongue. The Stoics of Greece and Rome, like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, taught that the world itself is neither good nor evil—it is the judgment of the mind that gives events their weight. One man meets ruin and despairs; another faces the same ruin and finds renewal. The event is the same; the tide of the mind is different. In this way, Meynell echoes their teaching: the secret of happiness is not in changing the world, but in mastering the currents of one’s own thoughts. For the world, ever-shifting and uncertain, cannot be tamed—but the mind, though wild at first, can be taught to flow with grace.

Consider the life of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who endured the horrors of the concentration camps during the Second World War. Stripped of freedom, family, and dignity, he faced the darkest of all human nights. Yet even there, he found a glimmer of happiness—not in his suffering, but in his ability to choose how to respond to it. “Everything can be taken from a man,” he wrote later, “but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” Frankl’s mind, though surrounded by death, refused to surrender its inner light. His was the perfect embodiment of Meynell’s truth: events do not dictate happiness; the soul’s tide does.

We live in a world that confuses excitement with joy, and comfort with peace. We chase events—successes, possessions, honors—as though each might finally anchor us in contentment. Yet as soon as one wave passes, another rises, and the soul is tossed again. Alice Meynell, with the calm insight of one who has watched many such storms, reminds us that no lasting happiness can come from the changing sea of circumstance. It must come from within, from the inner harmony of a mind attuned to life’s rhythm. Only when we cease to fight the tides do we learn to ride them.

To achieve this, one must learn the art of inner adjustment. When sorrow visits, do not curse it—observe it, understand its depth, and let it pass. When joy arrives, do not cling to it—savor it, and let it go with gratitude. The mind, like the moon’s tide, ebbs and flows; to find peace is to move with it, not against it. This is not a call to indifference, but to mastery—a noble calm that endures amidst change. As the great sages taught, the still lake reflects the heavens, but the troubled sea reflects only the storm.

The lesson, dear listener, is this: if you would be happy, guard not your circumstances, but your mind. Do not wait for the world to soften before you soften your thoughts. Cultivate serenity through reflection, gratitude, and discipline of the heart. Each morning, before the noise of the day begins, return to yourself. Ask not, “What will happen to me today?” but rather, “How shall I meet what comes?” For in that question lies power—the power to shape the very quality of your life.

And so, remember Alice Meynell’s eternal truth. The outer world is a sea of chance—its tempests beyond your command—but your mind is the vessel that carries you through it. Strengthen that vessel; make it deep, make it still. Then no storm will drown you, and no calm will make you idle. For true happiness is not found in the calm of life, but in the steady helm of a mind that has learned to master its tides.