Things are going well, and you have started looking over your shoulder.

You know the feeling. The job came through, the person texted back, the scan was clear, and instead of enjoying it you are bracing. Waiting for the other shoe. Feeling slightly guilty, as if happiness were a bill that arrives later with interest.

It is not a bill. The bracing is an old habit from a time when good news was usually followed by bad, and it has stayed on long after the job it was hired for ended.

Nothing bad is caused by your being happy. If the shoe drops, it drops either way. The only thing the bracing does is eat the good part.