Invitation to Fear

Yesterday Buck showed me how quickly fear manifests as action. I have worked on just handling him and understanding his language enough to read the warning signs. In my journey to understand the chicken mind I have found that being afraid is squirting lighter fluid on an already burning coal.
Why be afraid of a chicken who, though more mobile is much smaller. I have handled small children having tantrums who have frightened me more.
A friend was visiting, it was a fine September day, perfect for sitting on the deck with cups of coffee. She could not calm down.
Buck jumped up on the deck from underneath where it is nice and cool and there are plenty of bugs and walked once around the table eyeing her as though he were auditioning for an episode of Law & Order.
If you are sitting down, not shuffling your feet or waving towels around, he will just finish patrolling his beat, and go on to more interesting pursuits.
She got up and moved so that if Buck jumped up on the deck again, she'd be able to see him coming.
He jumped up on the deck again. Noticing that the seating arrangements had changed, it was his job to check it out. This time he growled before going back under the deck. A pattern of movement developed, like a dance, ending up with Buck being confused about her behaviour and deciding to put a stop to it. Her voice got shrill, Buck got busy. I interceded.
Throughout this I had been telling her that he wouldn't do anything other than walk around if she just stayed in her chair, but she'd had past experience with geese, and at one point told me that she would claim her right to be afraid. Her fear manifested as just the thing that would spark Buck's aggression - acting twitchy, shuffling her feet and waving brightly colored towels around. He takes his job of protecting the girls very seriously and like many tough guys, doesn't have much sense of humor.
This reminded me; I fear things that haven't happened yet, that happened at one time, that may never happen or that aren't happening now, when just holding still and watching is all that's needed. Thanks, Buck!