Tamela Maxim

We haven’t shared much outside family. Our son Nicholas III “Nicky” is in the Fairview hospital in Minneapolis for a minimum of 4 weeks for AML (acute myeloid leukemia) undergoing chemotherapy and possibly bone marrow transplants. His first diagnosis (pancreatic cancer) was wrong and for that we are grateful BUT I think they owe him at least a vacation in Fiji or some other gorgeous tropical isle to recover from the shock and horror of being told he had 6 months to live and then a week later, “Oops, sorry buddy - you ARE dangerously ill but you DON’T have pancreatic cancer.” The AML came on fast and furious. He went from feeling great and taking hikes with his family the week before to all of a sudden not being able to eat (the tumor was squishing his stomach so not even liquids could pass through). He was in unrelenting pain which was finally relieved somewhat when they drained the fluid that was building up in his body - 5 liters! Covid was (and is) raging through Minnesota s...

Rosh Hashanah begins the work and Yom Kippur seals it if you are willing to go deep. One of God’s names on Yom Kippur is Chacham Ha-Razim which means wise to the secrets. God knows everything about you, even your secrets, even things you have forgotten, even things you have lied to yourself about yourself. There is nowhere to hide from God. God wants us to be obedient. Consider Jonah. He took a ship to run away from God and was thrown overboard when a storm threatened to sink the ship if they allowed him to remain. Eventually, Jonah ended up where God wanted him – in Nineveh. Jonah also ended up doing what God wanted and was successful, even though he didn’t want to obey and he didn’t even like it when his preaching to the sinful people in Nineveh caused what God wanted – their true repentance. Jonah didn’t think the people in Nineveh deserved God’s forgiveness. He was angry that God forgave them. Jonah didn’t seem to realize how fortunate he was that God didn’t give up on him or ...