Don't know the source on this one...
Who's Packing Your Parachute?
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.
Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter 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 pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform - a Dixie
cup 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 on 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.
Plumb 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.
His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever
storms lie ahead. As you go through this week, this month, this
year...recognize the people who pack your parachute! And Thank You for
packing mine, I am forever grateful! "The smallest deed always exceeds the
grandest of intentions"
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.
Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter 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 pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform - a Dixie
cup 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 on 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.
Plumb 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.
His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever
storms lie ahead. As you go through this week, this month, this
year...recognize the people who pack your parachute! And Thank You for
packing mine, I am forever grateful! "The smallest deed always exceeds the
grandest of intentions"
