" A star shone brightly down into my garden, poking behind the clouds. And I stared up at the night sky. There were all those stars with nothing around them, protecting them. they were up there and I was down here, and into my head came the idea of fences; how when you have something you  value, the next thing you have to do is build a fence around it. As it has been said, Tithes are a fence for wealth. Vows are a fence for abstinence. Silence is a fence for wisdom.  These fences do not protect what we value from other people, like those fences that prevent things from being stolen away. These are fences against our own selves; against what in our selves can chase what we value away. I told myself, Catalog what you value, then put a fence around these things. Once you have put a fence around something, you know it is something you value. Put a fence around what you want to make holy, and crown it with the seventh day. Crown it with rest. The fence and the rest make it holy.
...
Now it seemed so horrible to me. And didnt it explain everything? But I had never wanted to be one person, or even believed that i was one, so i had never considered the true singularity of anyone else. I said to myself, You are only given one. The one you are given is the one to put a fence around. Life is not a harvest. Just because you have an apple doesnt mean you have an orhard. You have an apple. Put a fence around it. Once you have put a fence around everything you value, then you have the total circle of your heart."

How Should a Person Be?
Sheila Heti