A small boy, trembling with excitement and instinctual caution, extends his hand to offer food to a bird or a shy animal. In Shinto thought, this moment is more than childlike wonder—it is a sacred exchange with the kami of the creature, a connection between human and nature. The boy’s joy is tinged with the primal thrill of vulnerability, a fleeting awareness of the balance between life as giver and life as taker. This interaction becomes a dance of trust, a quiet acknowledgment of the interconnected spirit that flows between all living things
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