Vince's Journey

As you might expect, I've received quite a few of those 'inspirational' chain e-mails over the past several weeks. I always read them but whether I forward them on or not is usually dependant on how busy I am. I received the following e-mails this week and thought I'd post them here as a way of forwarding them on. The first one, about the mouse and the mousetrap, is from my Aunt Linda who lives in Arizona. The second one, about the parachute is from Chris Daniel, the mother of one of my football players. Both have wonderful messages and fit in well with the journey we are currently on. I thank you all for being there for us during this time. I hope you realize how much your support and love means to us. And in a small way I'd simply like to say, 'Thanks!' for helping our family pack our parachutes. Thanks for the e-mails, Linda and Chris!!

Mousetrap in the House
We are in this together.
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his
wife open a package. What food might this contain?" He was devastated to
discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a
mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I
can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to
me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the
house." The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,
but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my
prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you,
but it's no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head
down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound
of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital,
and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with
fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the
soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit
with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her
funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all
of them.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it
doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all
at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out
for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

SEND THIS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER HELPED YOU OUT AND LET THEM KNOW HOW
IMPORTANT THEY ARE.
REMEMBER: EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR
LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.


Subject: Who's Packing your Parachute?

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 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 was amazed that the man had remembered him and 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 a m 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........