Fears and fairies

As a child I used to love the flower fairies by Cicely Mary Barker. My grandma had a little book that a teacher had given her at school for being good. It was tiny and on the edge of falling apart, but all the colours inside were still there and I used to look at it for hours. I remember closing my eyes when I was alone and imagining the little Buttercup, Zinnia and Lavender fairies dancing all around my head. Come to think of it Lavender was my favourite. Somehow, at some point, in some place, this image changed and morphed into a strange and unreasonable fear of pigeons (it's actually most birds and flying things but pigeons are always bleeding there). Now when I am alone, and my eyes are shut, I image them swooping and squawking around my head. I wonder where our fears come from.