Stepping on Peacocks

Another set of words I never imagined putting together: I accidentally stepped on a peacock’s tail and neither one of us enjoyed it.

?How this happened: Here on our small farm, we “put animals up” at night.

?What this means: Everyone – chickens, guinea fowl, peacocks, goats and sheep – is tucked into overnight quarters that are (mostly) predator-proof.

?Living surrounded by wilderness means some of the local wild critters love to drop by and grab a quick gnosh before continuing their nightly rounds.

This includes a local bear who visited several nights, helping himself to the beehives, decimating 2 hives and carrying away a 60-pound box filled with honey and bee brood.

?Apparently, he came to dine in and grab some take-away.

?And he’s not the only one. The video cameras located around the farm reveal a variety of nighttime visitors, some passing through and others actively looking for a next meal.

?So, we have this nightly ritual of gathering all of those in our care and sorting them into separate housing as part of fulfilling our responsibility to their well-being.

?Spoiler alert: Key words in that last sentence include “all those in our care,” and “our responsibility to their well-being.”

Hold that for future consideration.

?Over time, the animals have learned that we, the humans involved, are Bringers of Good Things.

They cluster around us, darting beneath our feet and between our legs as we attempt to fill feed troughs and bowls.

?Some of the chickens will try to jump up and perch on feed buckets I'mcarrying, and peacocks have been known to grab my fingers instead of the feed I’m dispensing.

?As for the sheep? They don’t understand human physical boundaries and it only takes 1 eager ewe, shoving to get to the feed bowl, to blow out? your knee or hip, or stomp tender bones in your feet into new and uncomfortable configurations.

?It can be a melee, ?offering many opportunities for animals and humans to be injured.

?So, we have routines we follow to minimize the chaos, and keep enthusiastic animals from hurting each other (or us).

?However…despite our best efforts, some evenings, getting all interested parties funneled through gates into the appropriate enclosures results in an animal logjam and everyone slows or comes to a halt as we get it all sorted.

?On the occasions I am in “let’s just get this done” mode, I can miss the signs that a logjam is about to happen.

As a result, instead of wading carefully through the scrum of birds around my ankles, I can misstep and land on someone.

?Let me just say, for those of you who will never know this experience:

Peacocks don’t like it when you step on their long trailing tails.

They’ll jump and honk and flap, and if they hit you in the face with their big wing bones, it can hurt.

?So, don’t do that.

?When this happens with the larger birds, the result is usually ruffled feathers and a temporarily upset nervous system.

?If it happens with a smaller bird like one of the chickens, the result can be devastating. It’s really easy to break a chicken’s back by stepping on them. They are tender creatures.

?One evening, while hurrying through a connecting gate to get the chickens stowed, one impatient little hen tried to duck under the gate to get out and …I missed it.

?A muffled squawk came from around my feet just as I slammed the gate shut. Looking down, I saw a hen flapping with her neck caught under the gate.

?My first thought was her neck had been broken as she flopped and panted. I was horrified.

Fortunately, she recovered quickly and shortly after, happily shouldered her way through the chicken crowd to join the evening meal.

?It’s really sobering when that happens.

Few of us want to inflict pain or damage on others, especially those in our care.

?How this gets relevant, even to those of you who live very different lifestyles:

Substitute “those you lead” with “those in your care,” and notice what happens to your thinking about leadership.

?If you’re thinking, “But, Lyn, I don’t supervise anyone so I’m not a leader,” consider this:

• If you are a parent, you are a leader.
• You are the leader in your own life.
• If you influence, guide or develop others, you are a leader.

?So, let’s just agree that if you’re here, reading this, you are a leader in one or more respects.

?Once again: When you think “those in my care” instead of “those I lead,” what happens to your inner narrative about “leadership?”

?Here are some key points that surface for me in this noodling:

?1)???? Leadership must include caring for those we lead, which means learning to nurture others in ways that help them grow.

2)???? As with so many other things like peace and love, this begins with nurturing oneself.

3)???? Whenever we fail to be present in the moment, present with what is happening around us and within us, that’s when we are most likely to step on someone and inflict damage.

4)???? This includes squashing parts of one’s own psyche, the disowned or dissociated parts of the self.

5)???? The more we squash ourselves, the more likely we are to do this to others – and be unable to see when we’re doing it.

6)???? Accepting a leadership role, informally or formally, will require you to accept certain responsibilities that may not yet be rewarded or even recognized by the dominant culture.

7)???? These often-unacknowledged responsibilities include being present (with yourself and others) and nurturing (yourself and others) in ways that help all parties grow and thrive.

?Use these reflection questions to self-monitor the metaphorical peacock tails in your life:

• Who/what are you at risk of stepping on when you aren’t fully present?
• ?Where is it harder for you to be responsible to relationship, with yourself and others?

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