Who is Packing Your Parachute?

Air Commodore Vishal was a Jet Pilot. In a combat mission his fighter plane was destroyed by a missile. He however ejected himself and parachuted safely. He won acclaims and appreciations from many.

After five years one day he was sitting with his wife in a restaurant. A man from another table came to him and said, "You're Captain Vishal! You flew jet fighters. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Vishal.

"I packed your parachute," the man smiled and replied.

Vishal gasped in surprise and gratitude and thought if parachute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today.

Vishal couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. He wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" or anything because, he was a fighter pilot and that person was just a safety worker.

So friends, who is packing your parachute?
Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day.

We need many kinds of parachutes when our plane is shot down - we need the physical parachute, the mental parachute, the emotional parachute, and the spiritual parachute.
We call 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 smile, 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, recognise the people who pack your parachute.

Considerations for 2016

1. On Earning:
Never depend on single income.
Make investment to create a second chance.

2. On Spending:
If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.

3. On Savings:
Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.

4. On Taking Risk:
Never test the depth of a river with both feet.

5. On Investment:
Do not put all eggs in one basket.

6. On Expectations:
Honesty is a very expensive gift. Do not expect it from cheap people.

7. Past is a waste paper, present is a newspaper, and future is a question paper. Come out of your past, control the present, and secure the future.

8. When bad things happen in your life, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you or you can let it strengthen you.

9. Our eyes are in the front because it is more important to look ahead than to look backwards.

10. We use pencil when we were young, but now we use pens. Do you know why? Because mistakes in childhood can easily be erased, unlike now.

Wish you a prosperous 2016.

Life & Friendship Quotes

Don't promise when you're happy. Don't reply when you're angry and don't decide when you're sad.

Life is like a book. Some chapters sad, some happy, and some exciting. But if you never turn the page... You will never know what the next chapter holds.

Love what you have...
Accept what you receive...
Give what you can...
Forgive what you can't...
And bless what you see...
Be the source of light!

One smile can start a relationship.
One word can stop an argument.
One look can make you feel wanted.
One friendship can change your life.

How beautiful it is to find someone who asks for nothing but your company.

I don't need my life to be perfect. I just want to be happy, with a few close friends who love me just the way I am.

Life is better when you are happy but life is at its best when people are happy because of you. Be inspired, give love and share your smile with everyone.

Sometimes a person's silence speaks louder than their words.

As we go through life, we start to understand that it's not important to have lots of friends. What truly matters is that we have real friends.

Best friends are people who make your problems their problems, just so you don't have to go through them alone.

Good friends care for each other, close friends understand each other, but true friends stay forever... beyond words, beyond distance, beyond time.

Let's face it... friends make life a lot more fun - Chuck Swindall

You will be a beautiful person, as long as you see the beauty in others. - Bryant McGill

Cherish Your Friends

A friend is...
Someone who loves you, cares for you, and protects you like family.
They know your deepest and hidden secrets, they laugh at your silly jokes and cry with you too...
They respect your feelings and always try to make you happy...
They see the hidden sadness in your smile and they are always there for you when you're feeling alone...
A true friend is the greatest gem.

Our best book is equal to hundred friends but one good friend equals to a library - Dr A P J Abdul Kalaam

Chinese Advice to 50-year-olds and Older

Because none of us have many years to live, and we can't take along anything when we go, so we don't have to be too thrifty.

Spend the money that should be spent, enjoy what should be enjoyed, donate what you are able to donate.

Don't worry about what will happen after we are gone, because when we return to dust, we will feel nothing about praises or criticisms. The time to enjoy the worldly life and your hard earned wealth will be over!

Don't worry too much about your children, for children will have their own destiny and should find their own way. Care for them, love them, give them gifts but also enjoy your money or what is left of it, while you can. Life should have more to it than working from the cradle to the grave!

50-year-olds,  don't trade in - your health for wealth, by working yourself to an early grave anymore. Because your money may not be able to buy your health.

When to stop making money, and how much is enough? A hundred thousand, one million, ten million, one billion?

Out of thousand hectares of good farm land, you can consume only three quarts of rice daily; out of a thousand mansions, you only need eight square meters of space to rest at night.

So, as long as you have enough food and enough money to spend, that is good enough. You should live happily. Every family has its own problems.

Just do not compare with others for fame and social status and see whose children are doing better etc., but challenge others for happiness, health, enjoyment, quality of life and longevity.

Don't worry about things that you can't change because it doesn't help and it may spoil your health.

You have to create your own well-being and find your own place of happiness. As long as you are in good mood and good health, think about happy things, do happy things daily and have fun in doing, then you will pass your time happily every day.

One day passes without happiness, you will lose one day.
One day passes with happiness and then you gain one day.

In good spirit, sickness will cure;
In a happy spirit, sickness will cure faster;
In high and happy spirits, sickness will never come.

With good mood, suitable amount of exercise, always in the sun, variety of foods, reasonable amount of vitamin and mineral intake, hopefully you will live another 20 or 30 years of health life of pleasure.

Above all -
Learn to cherish the goodness around... like your spouse and friends... They all make you feel young and 'wanted'... without them you are surely to feel lost!

Wishing you all the best for the years to come.

Thoughts to ponder

One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.

Faith makes everything possible.
Hope makes everything work.
Love makes everything beautiful.
May you have all the three as you begin each day.

Living a meaningful life is not about being rich, popular, highly educated or being perfect.
Life is about being honest, being strong, real, humble and able to reach out and touch the lives of others while holding gratitude in your heart!

Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. - Khalil Gibran

Company of good people is like walking in a shop of perfume. Whether you buy the perfume or not, you are bound to receive the fragrance.

Life is a circle of happiness, sadness, hard times, and good times. If you are going through hard times, have faith that good times are on the way.

The most difficult task is to make everybody happy, the simplest task is to be happy with everyone.

To make a difference in someone's life, you don't have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect, you just have to care enough and be there.

Ego is just a small three letter word which can destroy a big twelve letter word called relationship.

2 short ways to have peace of mind:
Forgive what you cannot forget
Forget what you cannot forgive

Live every moment, laugh every day, love beyond words.

Problems are like washing machines. They twist us, spin us and knock us around. But in the end we come out cleaner, brighter and better than before.

早安好心情

开心跟着你
好事追着你
健康伴随你
烦恼躲着你
病魔隔着你
万事顺着你

别让一生输在一个等字上

等将来
等不忙
等下次
等有时间
等有条件
等有钱了
等来等去……
等没了缘分
等没了青春
等没了健康
等没了机会
等没了选择
等没了美丽
谁也无法预知未来
很多事情
可能会一等就等成了永远
想要做的事就赶紧去做
不要给自己等来太多的遗憾。

*Life Messages*

There are hundreds of languages around the world but a smile speaks them all.

Waves are inspiring, not because they rise and fall, but because they never fail to rise again.

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind.
But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.

Yesterday was Experience.
Today is Experiment.
Tomorrow is Expectation.
Use your Experience in your Experiment to achieve your Expectation.

One small positive thought when you wake up... can change the course of your whole day.

No matter what's happening, choose to be happy.
Don't focus on what's wrong.
Find something positive in your life.

- Joel Osteen

Mornings are gifts of God

Brand new day,

Brand new journey,

Enjoy it, embrace it!

It's very easy to give example, but it's very difficult to become an example.

Life becomes more meaningful when you realise the simple fact that you'll never get the same moment twice.

In life, you will realise there is a role for everyone you meet.
Some will test you,
Some will use you,
Some will love you,
And some will teach you.
But the ones who are truly important are the ones who bring out the best in you.
They are the rare and amazing people who remind you why it's worth it.

Change Our Mindsets

Jack Ma says, 'Please tell your children that the world is changing every day and no ones is going to wait for you in the past.
When lighter was invented, matches slowly disappeared.
When calculator was created, abacus was to fade away.
When digital camera was designed, the market of negative film no longer existed.
When direct market selling/internet-based selling arises, traditional marketing declines.
When smartphone with 4G (wireless Internet access) was introduced to the world, you no longer need to turn on your computer at home.
When WeChat and WhatsApp (mobile text/voice/video messaging application) are developed, traditional text messaging is no longer as popular as before.
Let's not blame 'Who took over Whose business'. It's only because people are most adjustable and adaptable to new ideas and changes in the world.'

Someone asks Jack Ma, 'What is your secret for success?'

He says, 'Really simple... I am doing (action) while you're only watching.'

Please remember that the world keeps changing every day.
If you don't change, you'll be left behind.
You reap what you sow with your time.
If you spend time to drink, you may become an alcoholic.
If you spend time to complain, you may become a blamer.
If you spend time to beautify yourself, you may become a pretty girl/handsome guy.
If you spend time to stay healthy, you may enjoy a healthy good life.
If you spend time to be picky, you may become a mean person.
If you spend time to learn, you may gain wisdom.
If you spend time with your family, you may foster a warm and loving relationship with your loved ones.

Music to My Ears

At the prodding of my friends I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Honor. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines, Iowa.

I have always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons... something I have done for over 30 years. During those years, I found that children have many levels of musical ability, and even though I have never had the prodigy, I have taught some very talented students. However, I have also had my share of what I call 'Musically Challenged Pupils'.

One such pupil being Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson.

I prefer that students (especially boys) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby. But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano, so I took him as a student.

At the end of each weekly lesson he would always say 'My mom's going to hear my play someday'. But to me, it seemed hopeless, he just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled, but never dropped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming for his lesson. I thought about calling him, but assumed that because of his lack of ability he had decided to pursue something else. I was also glad that he had stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed a flyer recital to the students' homes. To my surprise, Robby (who had received a flyer) asked if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and that because he had dropped out, he really did not qualify.

He told me that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to his piano lessons, but that he had been practising. 'Please Miss Honor, I've just got to play,' he insisted. I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital - perhaps it was his insistence or maybe something inside of me saying that it would be all right.

The night of the recital came and the high school gymnasium was packed with parents, relatives and friends. I put Robby last in the program, just before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he might do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my 'Curtain Closer'.

Well, the recital went off without a hitch, the students had been practising and it showed. Then Robby came up on the stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked as though he had run an egg beater through it. 'Why wasn't he dressed up like the other students?' I thought. 'Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?'

Robby pulled out the piano bench, and I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen to play Mozart's Concerto No. 21 in C Major. I was nor prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from Pianissimo to Fortissimo, from Allegro to Virtuoso; his suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by anyone his age.

After six and a half minutes, he ended in a Grand Crescendo, and everyone was on their feet in wild applause!! Overcome and in tears, I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy.

'I have never heard you play like that Robby, how did you do it?' Through the microphone Robby explained, 'Well, Miss Honor, remember I told you that my mom was sick? Well, she actually had cancer and passed away this morning. And well... she was born deaf, so tonight was the first time she had ever heard me play, and I wanted to make it special.'

There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. As people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed in to foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy. I thought to myself then how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil.

No, I have never had a prodigy, but that night I became a prodigy... of Robby. He was the teacher and I was the pupil, for he had taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself, and may be even taking a chance on someone and you didn't know why.

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If God didn't have a purpose for us, we wouldn't be here!
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.