Animism is the belief (don’t really like this word, but for now) that we live in relation with non-human persons. Animals, plants and fungi have personhood, landscapes and places have personhood, waterbodies have personhood, … even machines might have, who knows.
These relationships need to be managed just like relations with the people around us. But it seems that we humans have spent the last 10s of 1000s of years in a toddler tantrum of perceived uniqueness and haven’t listened to our older relatives. (Okay, the last bit is my personal take of this, rather to serve as a discussion point).
I think of spirit as the essence of being. All things that exist have an essence of being just by existing. All things are following their intent. Whether it’s a bird, a tree, a rock, water, people. It encompasses all we can perceive with our senses and things we can’t. Wind, heat, these are energy and therefore exist and have an essence of being.