willow01's blog post

Ok....before anybody says anything....I know i have posted this before in my blog.....but at this time of year I think the sentiment of this message is really fitting.


Once you have read the message here I want everybody to know that you have all done this for me....at various times over the last year.


Charles 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 I n 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.

Thank you all for your part in packing my parachute! And remember to thank those who have helped pack yours!




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I know it's maybe a little soppy to some, but like I said - It just feel its fitting right now for so many people around here....


kisses and thank you...xxxxxxxxxxx