From your (feminine) Barnabas

Barnabas: a nickname meaning "Son of Encouragement"

I'm reading your post as you fly to Miami this morning. I'd say a little prayer that you have safe, comfortable travel...but I've been doing that anyway the last couple of hours.
You're right, my love, you rarely get sick...in fact, I think of the time you flew home early so we could help Mark in that devastating time for him that required such strange help. I think of the way all the people around him still look at you in wonder at what you were able to accomplish...I think of your dream about being the man at the back of the airplane, helping others escape when it crashes, shoring up the escape slide with your own hands when it starts slipping, and how even though I was not present on that dream flight, still your first thought when you finished your great task was to call me and let me know you were OK... And I think of how the next scene in that dream had us climbing a mountain, with you behind me staring at my butt, thinking to yourself how such a view would keep you going until you reached the top of the mountain. Ha! Unexpected heroic leadership certainly doesn't leave you drained, now does it?
The term "rescuer" carries connotations of relational illness nowdays; but you, my love, are a rescuer in all the right ways, both in the realities of life, and in the more elusive and complicated realities of dreams. You were designed to make things go right that look like they could go so wrong. Maybe sickness comes with such fury to keep you in tangible connection with those you "serve" or will serve in these ways. Maybe it is to hone your compassion. You know I've said before, I trust your wisdom in these things...I know you worry that you will make some mistake as you carry this spiritual burden that has been laid on your back, but I look at how you have delt with emergencies in life before. Those are the moments I shake my head in wonder at your power to take authority, to convince and direct people and things toward the best possible solutions. I've seen this happen before...it is in your design...it will not forsake you now.
I love you...