Shrine trees have stood there for hundreds of years

When you visit a shrine,

there are trees that make you look up instinctively.

Thick trunks.

Branches spreading wide.

Leaves swaying quietly.

For hundreds of years,

through rainy days,

windy days,

and snowy days,

they have simply continued to stand in that place.

Those trees

do not choose anyone,

nor do they rush anyone.

They simply

welcome visitors

in silence.

A human life

might be

just a fleeting moment from the perspective of a tree.

Days of joy.

Days of sorrow.

Days of uncertainty.

The same tree

has watched over them all without saying a word.

Perhaps that is why,

when I stand beneath a shrine tree,

I feel a strange urge to take a deep breath.

Not to forget something,

nor to remember something.

Simply

to feel

that I am here right now.

At a shrine,

there are torii gates.

There are bridges.

There are stones.

And there are trees.

All of them

have lived longer than humans

and have quietly watched over human life.

That may be why shrines

continue to welcome people

just as they always have, both in the past and today.