Ty Buddington Tale of Wonders
Part two, Taste of Homeland

Beloved hubby returned from a business trip to the very spot the family once called "sweet home." The kids and their mom confessed jealously. Yet, this mom realized it wasn't the time to revisit that homeland, where life tasted like corn on the cob, banana splits, chili over spaghetti, and chocolate-peanut butter Buckeye Blitz ice cream.
Where is the homeland of"la dolce vita" ? For the Israelites and Moses, the sweet life wasn't tethered to a prior geographic mooring. The sweet life in the US of A ought not tie to a dream home,what with foreclosures and reports of torched mansions in Californian enclaves.

On weekends Ty Buddington and Dad still carpenter the organizer for a closet, the space a Nepali family of eight could mud dung slather to make their bedroom.


Every day Mom awakes from an arena of a master suite. She drifts to the mirror to apply eye drops and determine how far she can stand to perceive her face. Pre PRK and Lasik surgery, without glasses to focus she stood two inches (5 cm) from the mirror. Now one foot (30 cm) away, she beholds the face that hid behind eyeglasses. Ah, there's that wide dimpled smile, tanned skin, two hollowed cheeks beneath high cheekbones, the DNA imprints from her late Daddy.

She now gets the challenge her daughter Maria faced since birth: eyes that work independently of each other. In the struggle to process thoughts Mom and her Maria try to ground their shaky perceptions. Together they do a morning study in the Book that is also a mirror. Through that mirror a Carpenter chisels to reveal the holy imprints of the Father they belong to forever.

For the oncoming months, the halos of corneal repair may blur what Mom beholds. Still each day brings a clearer picture of her Father's world.

A week to Thanksgiving and a month to Christmas! Though snow blankets up north, in the Deep South the maple leaves flame and roses still bloom. And Ty and Dad will be in sync and active, tooling, maybe tandem biking. Soon the two pals will tandem-cook apple pies and cookie bars.

Can you sniff the cinnamon . . . the chocolate, too? Want that taste of home?

It's beginning to be a lot like heaven.
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is [anyone] who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8, niv)