So this morning at Starbucks I took my short walk between coffee refills and when I got back to my table, a woman had set up herself, and was working on her laptop, at the seat across from mine.  It’s a small two seat table, not the long ones Starbucks provides for many people.

The woman said, “I hope you don’t mind.  There were no tables available.  I won’t bother you.  I’ll just do my work.  You’re always here.  I didn’t think you’d mind.”

I responded, “It’s weird.  This is not comfortable for me. ” At which point she just gave me a look that read, it’s not her problem.  So, I could have asked her to leave, but instead I said., “it’s weird.  I need my space.  I’ll move.”

At which point I was prepared to go sit outside, but the perfect table was available toward the back.

So, here I sit, flabbergasted at how someone could assume it’s o.k. to intrude upon someone’s personal space.  Not even asking.  It might be different if it’s a friend or someone I knew, but even then, I would expect them to ask if they could join me.

What is interesting is as I was walking, I was feeling really connected, really blissed out.  So enjoying the sensual aspects of my walk.  So the intrusion felt even more harsh a contrast to the space I was just in.  It felt like two diametrically opposed vibrations crashing into each other.

It makes me realize how our consciousness is vastly different from much of the consciousness surrounding us.  While this person wasn’t clobbering me over the head and stealing my wallet, it felt like a type of personal violation of my personal space.

Perhaps she has no respect even for her own personal space.  Maybe she is a mother, and a wife, who’s space is intruded upon all the time, and she just tolerates it.  How many people allow that every day?  They allow their personal space to be invaded by others, by their own thoughts of lack.  No boundaries.

We are getting to know ourselves finally, after how many years and decades of allowing life to intrude upon our personal space.

Perhaps the woman today was a reminder to me that it’s important to be aware of how much I am still allowing my sacred space to be intruded upon, not just physically, but emotionally.

Especially as a woman, I had played the role of someone who others felt they could take from.  They were able to extract nurturance and support, so they didn’t need to give it to themselves.  And  even as I released people from my life who were not willing to give that support to themselves, I found that I also had to face my own inner aspects who were doing the same thing.

They were draining me energetically with their demands.  Their neediness.  Their insecurities.  So I would need to disentangle myself also from them.  And I have been doing that simply by loving myself.  By allowing my soul to be more and more in my body and in my life.

So those aspects of me can come in and feel that love, and not be so resistant.  There is  no analyzing them.  No trying to figure them out.  Who has the time?  It’s not necessary.

So I’m taking the sign across my forehead off.  The one that reads, “c’mon over, sit at my table, make yourself comfortable.  Mi casa su casa….I’m easy.”

And the same sign comes off that my aspects may have been reading.  Now it’s, “No intrusions permitted.”

There comes a point in our Mastery where we are not always so tolerant.  Where we are very clear about what we will permit into our consciousness.    We begin to love ourselves so much that we choose how we want to feel.  And we also get to choose who we allow to sit at our sacred table.