Misery and happiness, in Laozi's (say "laow-dzuh") line, sit close enough to touch, so close that no one can say for certain where one truly ends and the other begins. The promotion that solves one problem quietly opens another; the loss that wrecks a year sometimes opens a door nothing else would have touched. This isn't a reason to stop caring how things go, just a reason to hold your verdict on any single event more loosely than usual. Today, when you're tempted to call something purely good or purely bad news, notice its neighbor sitting right there beside it.
Misery!--happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness!--misery lurks beneath it! Who knows what either will come to in the end?
Tao Te Ching, ch. 58 (trans. James Legge)