I went to my classroom this morning to start packing things up. I'm getting ready to move to a new classroom and it's going to be a good thing. Time to sort out 16 years of "stuff" that have accumulated. There's "stuff" hiding in my closets, filing cabinets, shelves, etc.... I'm looking forward to being more organized and having a different room equipped with a bathroom for my little people.
I want to share something with you today besides a recipe. My friend Shirley sent me this email and it should be shared with many more people... like YOU! Read this and think about who packs 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!
As you can see my friends Shirley and Doug gave our neighborhood a physical thank you for helping to pack their parachute! It still hangs on our tree 2 weeks later, and will be there until something unforeseen tears it down. I smile each time I pull into my driveway and think of my wonderful neighbors who in turn are helping pack MY parachute.
1 comment:
Oh my - that parachute story is amazing. Linda, you have packed my parachute many times...Thank you.
The Gray's last episode was awesome! I also watched on line. I hate to admit it but I am hooked on that show!!!
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