Happiness Quote by Paula Cole

Aging, in Paula Cole's telling, isn’t a march toward wisdom so much as a recalibration of the volume knob. The line rejects the culture’s favorite emotional storyline: life as a series of headline moments, either euphoric peaks or catastrophic lows. Instead, she frames maturity as a quieter competence - not numbness, but a steadier range where feelings still arrive, just without the same violent weather.

The intent feels both personal and gently corrective. Cole came up in an era when women singer-songwriters were expected to be emotionally incandescent on command: confession as currency, heartbreak as a hook, catharsis as proof of authenticity. Her wording pushes back on that demand. “Zeniths” and “abyss” are dramatic, almost theatrical terms, and she uses them to describe extremes as something she’s outgrown - a narrative she no longer wants to perform for herself or anyone else.

The subtext is also about control. “I tend to walk a middle ground” isn’t resignation; it’s a choice, an agency statement. She’s describing a life where emotional experience is less about being swept away and more about staying upright. In a moment when wellness culture and social media both reward melodrama (either blissed-out positivity or doom), Cole offers a less marketable truth: stability is hard-won, unglamorous, and deeply freeing.