Friday 5: Companions on the Way

For this first Friday in Lent 2007, Songbird lined out today's F5:

Dante had Virgil as a guide.Before he had younger siblings, my oldest child had an imaginary friend named Patrick. Betsy had Tacy. Laura Ingalls depended on her brindle bulldog, Jack. All of them were companions on the way.

As we take the beginning steps of our journey through Lent, who would we take as a companion? Name five people, real or imaginary, you might like to have with you as guide or guardian or simply good friend.

Here's how I began—close to crazy:

This one carries an overwhelming emotional charge for me! At first I wondered if I could play at all, but a couple weeks ago I started a 365 blog, sometimes posting something unique for each day and sometimes cross-posting from another blog and thought maybe this Friday 5 would be today's 365 blog (really soon I'll link to my 365 from my others). Here's my dramatic original:

For starters, I thought of "Love Has no Pride" with versions by Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt: I've had bad dreams too many times,
To think that they don't mean much any more.
Fine times have gone and left my sad home,
Friends who once cared just walked out my door.

In that distant in time and space but always with me past, I realized I might not always have (extensive list of desirable life attributes followed by their converse), but life did hold one guarantee: my friends always would be there for me (with long list of friendship's mutual benefits and obligations), but then life happened in ways I could've imagined. (Violins or thunderclaps?)

After typing the previous sentences, I reread the question and realized it was about right now, about Lent 2007—the way panic suddenly had overwhelmed me says a lot about my primary anxieties!!! So I'm playing Companions on the Way in the here and now and on my testimony blog, just as I've done most Fridays, and I know that risking more self-revelation in some selected places and spaces will be my primary and very scary Lenten Discipline. As it turns out, my play for today turned out to be probably more conventional than any I've done so far.

1. Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ: prayer, contemplation, meditation, reading scripture and studying the Word. Of course!
2. Every Wednesday evening's literal com-panionship will be enjoying supper with both congregations in the bilingual ministry I'm involved with, followed by worship with the English-speaking congregation—I'll be playing the piano and we'll be watching a DVD series from Luther Seminary.
3. More conversation, more meals and more time with three special, phenomenal women God surprisingly has brought into my life; these women can meet me on my own terms, such a gift I've needed for so long. I've felt so bereft (reference a couple paragraphs supra)... One of these women is a strong I, so I'll need to draw her out some, but I'm anticipating good times and good growth all around.
4. More quality time with my four fantastic felines: Betsy (dilute calico girl); Pumpkin Marigold (orange tabby girl); Cruiser (tuxedo boy) and Alley Malibu (brown tabby boy).
5. I'm praying for and hope I will recognize at least one new person God sends into my life for however long.