Life has felt especially joyful lately. I don’t have any big Hazzah! for you, and that’s why I think this happy tickle is all the more special. It took a few days of working from home and a little stubborn stream of natural light entering my apartment—and suddenly I became a stranger standing on the bare hardwood floor. It was as though I had politely peeled my head around a curtain into someone else’s life and thought: what a beautiful story.

Not captured below is the storm of blue painter’s tape and cardboard boxes lining the walls. But in the moments I took these photos, my peripherals digressed and my attention turned to all of the soft, forgiving details—the ones that make you feel like they love you back if you look at them long enough.

Maybe, when you let a little light in, this is what it feels like to look inside your own heart and feel warmed back.