Life presents miraculous and beautiful occurrences every day that make me feel happy.

The light coming through the window this morning left the sun eight minutes ago and travelled the whole way to land on a table and a jar of jam.

We look for the miraculous in interruptions — the reprieve, the odds beaten, the thing that had no business happening. Most of the real candidates are the ordinary, running so reliably that pointing at them feels almost rude.

An unbroken chain of living things, four billion years long, ends for the moment in somebody deciding what to have for lunch. That is the standard daily inventory. It simply doesn't advertise.