Who Packed Your Parachute?

[Guest guest]

#message @font-face { font-family: Tahoma;}#message @font-face { font-family:

TimesNewRoman;}#message @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.25in

1.0in 1.25in; }#message P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt;

FONT-FAMILY: " Times New Roman " }#message LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN:

0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: " Times New Roman " }#message DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE:

12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: " Times New Roman " }#message A:link {

COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline}#message SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR:

blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline}#message A:visited { COLOR: #606420;

TEXT-DECORATION: underline}#message SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: #606420;

TEXT-DECORATION: underline}#message SPAN.EmailStyle18 { COLOR: navy;

FONT-FAMILY: Arial}#message DIV.Section1 { page: Section1}Who Packed Your

Parachute?

Please read this through to the end. It speaks to all of us who are irritated

by, but guilty of forwarded jokes!

Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions,

his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and

parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist

Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned

from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another

table came up and said, " You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the

aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down! "

" How in the world did you know that? " asked Plumb.

" I packed your parachute, " the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, " I

guess it worked! " Plumb assured him, " It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked,

I wouldn't be here today. "

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, " I kept

wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the

back, and bellbottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and

not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a

fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. "

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in

the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of

each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, " Who's packing your parachute? " Everyone has

someone who o provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points

out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over

enemy territory--he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his

emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these

supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really

important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone

on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do

something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this

year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in packing my

parachute! And I hope you will send it on to those who have helped pack yours!

Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a

word, maybe this could explain it: When you are very busy, but still want to

keep in touch, guess what you do---you forward jokes. And to let you know that

you are still remembered, you are still important, you u are still loved, you

are still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So my friend, next time when you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent

just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your

friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, just

helping you to pack your parachute

~ " We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a

little of each other everywhere. " ~

~ " If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the

entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand. "