I got this story forwarded to me by email from Rosman84 this afternoon. Really nice story. Please take 2 short minutes to read & I hope we can all apply it everyday for the rest of our lives.
Charles Plumb was a US 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 said, “I
kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib
in the back; and bell-bottom 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 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 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 pack your “parachute”.
Posted by drnaz 
Posted by drnaz 
Posted by drnaz 
