Hi everyone!  This will be my last entry to this blog from the US. I leave tomorrow to drive 3 hours to Santa Cruz, and give my cat to a friend’s loving care.  It wasn’t my first plan, or 3rd plan…but I know it is the best plan.  And Miurrkee will be well taken care of, and it will be good to see and say goodbye to friends in Santa Cruz before I head out.  My friends in Santa Cruz…they are family.

Before I leave, I just wanted to talk about fear.  It’s on my mind, because I’m enraptured with it at the moment.  My biggest fear in life is flying in an airplane.  I once had a root canal, and as I sat back in the chair I had the thought “…it could be worse.  I could be on an airplane right now.”

It wasn’t always that way.  I’ve been on so many airplane flights in my short time on Earth, that I’ve experienced a lot of issues.  I’ve been on a plane that flipped sideways.  I’ve been on a flight that dropped out of the sky for 20 seconds (think of the Tower of Terror ride at Disneyland…times 5).  I’ve flown through an electrical storm.  I’ve flown through a hurricane.  The list goes on and on.

All of these experiences have made me so scared of flying…I can’t even describe what it does to my body.  For me, so much of my trip to Ukraine is about waging war against my own personal fear.  Landing in Odesa is my dessert.

We should all try our best to face our fears.  I quote Steve Martin’s character “Lucky Day” from the film “The Three Amigos:” “In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be the actual El Guapo!”

I encourage everyone to face their fears.

And…I’ll see you all on the other side of the shadow!

Jeff:  Aug 15, 2016.