Some events change your life in immense steps. Sometimes these events can be equally immense, and obviously life-changing; but others are disproportionately tiny compared to depth of their impact. The real impact, of course, is only felt by the person undergoing the changes.

The birth of each of my sons changed my life, both in quote different ways. Ben was not only my first son, he represents my first, faltering foray into fatherhood. Jake was the first baby I was really able to connect with. I have a special, but quite different relationship with each of them, in much the same way that they’re both similar to each other and quite different from each other. But if I have a Peter Pan style “happy thought”, it’s most definitely them. I can be having a bad day, but when I pick them up from school I can smile once again. Whatever did I do before they appeared?

Other parents will have empathy with my feelings about fatherhood, whereas readers with no children will most probably think “ahhhh that’s sweet” but will fail to have the sort of empathy that is only born of a shared experience.

Today I shared the excitement with my boys as I went through another life-changing experience. With any luck, this morning was the last morning ever when I wake up and have to grope around an indistinct, blurry world in search of my glasses; a ritual I’ve been practising since I was seven years old. Tomorrow morning I shall awake, open my eyes, and see clearly. No, it’s not as a result of surgery, nor some opthalmic miracle; it’s merely a new kind of contact lens. Other people have been wearing these for years, but they’ve never been available with my prescription until comparatively recently.

If you’ve worn glasses for as long as I have, or even longer, you’ll appreciate the immensity of this; if you have pretty good vision, you’ll be entirely unimpressed.

Miracles are a personal thing. Just make sure that in your busy life – when you hardly have time to grab some breakfast, much less stop and think – you manage to recognise and appreciate your personal miracles when they happen to you.