Delila: The Lady Who Fell Out of the Sky

This morning, I woke early and drove to Delila’s place. Despite a light sprinkling of rain, her door was open, ready for a visitor, and she was quick with a welcome embrace. It was so great to see her! So natural. She’d just brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and after a bit we wandered out onto the back patio and continued our visit. Soon, another friend arrived and the three of us enjoyed fresh banana bread together.

Our time sped by all too quickly, as it often does when creative spirits gather. Time stands motionless, and at the same time, dashes onward. Though we all contributed to the conversation, more often than not the two of us visitors listened to Delila, captivated by what she had to share and what wisdom we might glean from her. She’s a woman who has suffered a time or two and has moved through that suffering triumphantly, after all. She’s someone who has learned some important things about life, and what it takes to live a good one.

Eventually, though, mothering duties called me away. On my way out, two more generous hugs and a commitment to get together again soon sealed the morning.

I’m still in awe realizing I only met Delila a couple months ago. Rather, she fell out of the sky a couple months ago; at least that’s what it seemed like to me. I was sitting in a monthly communicators’ meeting when she swooped in out of nowhere, a bit frazzled from not having known for sure if she’d gotten the right location. She admitted she almost hadn’t come, but there she was.

At some point during the meeting, Delila and I began to tune in to one another, and by the meeting’s end, we were arranging a coffee date, a gathering that I feel changed my life in many ways.

Delila has many gifts. Among them, she’s a visionary. She can take a few details, sort through them with you, and within a very short time, have helped you map out a new life’s direction. Not that I wasn’t already heading there in the first place, but it was as if Delila handed me a pair of glasses with a precision-fine prescription, allowing me to see clearly for the first time ever.

I received some highly professional consulting that day and I will be forever grateful. Delila came into my life, from out of the sky as it seemed, exactly when I needed her. I was at a crucial place of transition but needing some kind of guidance. And there she was.

If you believe in Divine Providence as I do, you won’t see this as anything too strange, but it’s always an incredible feeling to recognize when this sort of thing is at work in my life; that I’m being cared for and loved beyond my imagining at the precise moment I need it. It doesn’t always happen. At times, I am left to sort through the muck on my own like most. But occasionally, someone from another world, it seems, drops into my life and makes it better than what it was before.

The really awesome thing is that Delila insists it’s a mutually benefiting relationship. I view it a little like a mother-daughter thing. Delila doesn’t have any children, but she has a lot of love and plenty of talents to share. I have a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who believe in me, but they are not here, not in the place where I am right now.

But Delila is near. I’m still pinching myself to have stumbled upon her path that afternoon a few months back. And I’m delighted that despite some time having passed since our first coffee chat, we keep bumping into one another and in places I never would have guessed, at just the right time, making it so very clear that we were meant to share space for a while, maybe for a long time, even.

Next week I’ll share some of the specific fruits of my time with Delila. In the meantime, I’d love to know:

Q 4 U: Who is your Delila, and if so, how has she/he transformed your life for the better?