We ponder in perplexity about the origins of life. We are puzzled by the notion than life magically came about at some seemingly arbitrary moment in the history of the universe. What we fail to grasp is that life has existed for as long as the universe has existed, since the universe itself is life, and is alive. What we single out and deem to be worthy of this attribution "life" is merely one more of the many evolutionary steps of the universe.
All things are changing and evolving, right down to the very subatomic particles which we falsely believe to be the immutable building blocks of all that is around us. The evolution of certain things is at a pace that is outside of our scope of perception. Though, for example, we cohabit this Earth along with many ancient species that, to us, appear to have ended their process of evolution - dead ends on no longer growing branches of the evolutionary tree - yet these species continue to evolve, if at only a snail's pace. The only time that such species will cease to evolve is when they become extinct as a result of their slowed evolutionary pace leaving them totally vulnerable to the tumultuous changes occurring around them. But, as long as they continue to exist, still they continue to evolve.