A Monday Inspiration - Who Packed Your Parachute?

Who Packed Your Parachute
?


Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat 
missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and
 parachuted into enemy lands. 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 shook 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 might have 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 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.

My Message:

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. Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. We all require the help of others to make our world a greater and easier place to live, in all aspects of life. Not just in our work, but with our families, our social circles and communities. It is so crucial to identify who these key people are in our lives, right down to the smallest contributor and to really go out your way to recognise them. As you
 go through this week, this month, this year... recognise the people who pack your parachute!

May you have an outrageously awesome week :)
Darren Zwiers

This Weeks Quote:
“Recognition is the greatest motivator.” - Gerard C. Eakedale