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O
ur
P
arachute
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 six 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 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.......
Have a great day
and stay in touch.....
I want to thank everyone who has ever packed my parachute! Without
each and everyone of you I wouldn't be the person I am today! Thank
You!
The Law of Sowing and Reaping
We cannot receive any more than we can give. If we ask for a gift, we must have the state of awareness for receiving it because if we seek it before we are ready, we are wasting our time. So, how do we move into a state of preparation and readiness? We must begin sowing today, if we want to reap tomorrow!
One sincere way to serve this life principle is to give of ourselves once daily. A simple act of kindness done with love and without expectation of reward is a great way to strengthen the vessel of consciousness for receiving abundance in health, wealth, love and happiness.
Thank you Suzi
Chinese Proverb (I don't know why it works but it does!) Click Here To View Then Send The Link To Everyone On Your List
(This is a power point file. For free power point software we recommend Open Office )
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If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian. Think again!
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The Following Is From Ben Stein
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:
Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something lik e this Happen?"
(regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get
out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school
shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we
think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sendingmessages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is
in.
My Best Regards . honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
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Our Deepest Fear by Gary Halbert
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Gary Halbert
The Gary Halbert Letters
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