Or a raven who won't let anyone hurt her young. Or a bear. Or a snake. Or any fierce animal or bird that you can imagine yourself to be, every day—every hour of the day—when life comes at you in the shape of people and their demands and interruptions, and you put up a barrier, not letting them through and protecting your space where you can create as if you were protecting the life of your children.

So many of us artists struggle with this. 

Often we come to making art through wanting to somehow get rid of our pain. Instead of destroying we choose to create.

And because we've been through pain, often we're terrified of hurting people by telling them no or not helping them with every one of their whim.

However, if we fail to create boundaries and stick to them NO MATTER WHAT, people will barge in with the muddy shoes, and stomp around, and destroy our peace. 

How can you create in an atmosphere like that? You can't.

This morning, when meditating, I imagined myself as a raven mother with a young raven bird-daughter, and I felt as though I was made of steel. I have repeated again the list of my boundaries (I have a list I read every day, to retrain my own behavior—message me, and I can send it to you). I have resolved to stick to it no matter what, and so I'm sharing this with you, to help you too.

Together we can do it. Fiercely. With a loud RAWWWWWWRRRR!!!

Illustration by Amelie Fontaine