Animism

For me, animism is largely a deeply emotional response to the natural.

It is the feeling of a cool breeze, and feeling in it's touch on the skin the caress of a caring, loving, powerful goodness.

It is the feeling of the sun touching me gently with the warmth that gives the world life, and feeling touched with meaning, unfathomable and delicately beautiful

It is the warm feeling of my cat snuggled against me, taking my pain away, and a wonder that surpasses expression that the world would be made, at random, to allow such a thing.

It is the feeling of these things, and of that more that i can never quite say. As feelings. Not science, not belief, just input. It is how the world feels to me.

I don't, and never have, interpreted the world through these feelings, and so they have never really translated as a formal religion that would be easily recognizable as such. But I feel these things as certainly as I feel gravity.

It is the dichotomy that keeps me as sane as I am, which might not be saying much, but I cultivate this dichotomy, and NEVER try to resolve it. There should be a word for a dichotomy that is a coveted thing, but I havent seen one.