Life is not static. Quite the opposite; life is about change.

The changes of growth and social status: entry into school; entry into occupation; adulthood; marriage; parenthood; entry into an association — social, professional or religious; and elderhood.

The changes of the seasons and their accompanying weathers: thunderstorms and torrential rains, droughts, typhoons, and snowstorms.

The changes in the environments: flash floods, landslides, wild fires, volcanos, earthquakes, tsunami, and man-made disasters.

Changes in technology: new ways of doing, thinking, sensing, and communicating.

All these changes demand a certain degree of flexiblity of us, if we are to not only survive, but even thrive. The rigid will resist change and ultimately break. The flexible will bend and move with the change.

This is one of the main strengths of minzoku shintô, and most folk religions for that matter. There is no one "right" way of practice, but as many ways as there are practitioners. And the wonder of minzoku shintô is that all these versions can be true, provided no one insists that their version is the only "true" version.

Each practitioner moves to the rhythms of their own set of practices based on their experiences of the world around them. Because they are sensitive to what was and is, as the world changes, their practices also change. They adopt, adapt and absorb.

They are literally dancing thru life. Dancing with their bodies in new rituals and different ways of doing. Dancing with their minds to new ideas and different ways of thinking. Dancing with their words to new songs, new rituals and different ways of communicating. Dancing with their hearts to new relationships and different ways of feeling.