Thank God for hot water and working brakes. Ordinary things are miracles on a schedule.

Reliability hides things from us. Hot water at the tap and brakes that stop the car are the product of enormous care by people you will never meet, and they disappear the moment they work every time. Wonder tends to attach itself to the rare, when the remarkable thing is a system that does not fail on an ordinary Tuesday.

Take one thing today that has never let you down and look straight at it for a second. The tap, the light switch, the bus that came. Say thanks for it, out loud or under your breath, and watch how quickly the day stops feeling like it owes you something.