'It could have been worse'

'It could have been worse.'
'It could have been a lot worse.
I love this Irish saying.
You will meet it on Irish streets every day.
When I was younger the saying maddened me.
It seemed like a dismissal .
As I get older, I see another meaning.
I see a strength in acknowledging the narrow escapes,
the  blessing that sometimes comes in painful disguise.
I see the good thing that we can bring out of a 'bad' thing.
I see that many events are neither good nor bad in and of themselves,
but it is what I tell myself about them that matters...