Where I once constantly lost my temper, I found myself arriving at a crisis and experiencing peace.

The speaker contrasts a former pattern of reactive anger with a later capacity to meet a “crisis” calmly. The line suggests an inner transformation in which external pressure no longer dictates emotional response; instead, a decisive moment that might once have triggered rage becomes an occasion for composure. In McDowell’s typical framework, such change is often presented as evidence of moral or spiritual renewal—an altered character rather than mere behavior management. The quote also implies that peace is not the absence of conflict but a different way of inhabiting it: arriving at the same stressful threshold yet responding with steadiness.