A working definition of spirit

For this blog my working definition of spirit is "that which animates".

It's the difference between a green leaf on an oak tree in the summer and the same leaf, brown, on the ground in winter. It's the difference between an animal, human or otherwise, breathing or breathless. Spirit is life. Life is spirit. Life without spirit is no life at all.

To say spirit is that which animates, the difference between being alive or dead does not tell us much about what spirit itself actually is. What is it about spirit that animates? Spirit is irreducible. Spirit is spirit. Spirit is that which animates and makes alive.

So if spirit is that which animates are some void of spirit? Are some inanimate, lifeless, dead? Yes and no.

When I a little boy, probably around ten years old. I caught a tadpole in my grandfather's trout pond and took it home in a Mason jar. I named him Teddy and took care of him. I loved him. As Teddy's legs grew and tail shrank I changed his name from Teddy the Tadpole to Freddy the Frog.

One day when my mom vacuumed my room she put Freddy's jar in my bedroom window. She thought nothing of it and meant no harm. The sun shone directly in that window, warmed the water beyond Freddy's ability to survive. He died and I cried. Freddy's spirit no longer animated him. He was inanimate, lifeless, dead...or was he?

Did he stop changing? No, even after he "died", Freddy continued to change. He decomposed. After I buried him in the backyard, he continued to change and decomposed into the earth. He didn't stop changing. He remained animated after he "died". He was still spirited, alive. What animated him? Spirit, that which animates, which makes alive.

What was the difference between Freddy "alive" and Freddy "dead" if he was animated, spirited, in both conditions? How did Freddy's spirit change?

Did Freddy stop being Freddy? I think so. At what moment was Freddy no longer Freddy? What happened to Freddy's spirit? Where did it go? Did it leave Freddy? Did it go out like a turned-off light? Did it dissipate?

I have many more questions than answers about spirit.