Epilepsy Awareness Month – Miles For Us
This post is part of the Living Well with Epilepsy Blog 30 Day Relay for Epilepsy Awareness Month. I look forward to every Epilepsy Awareness Month. Even though I have had epilepsy for more than 35 years, I can feel isolated. Epilepsy Awareness Month provides an opportunity to feel connected to a larger community that […]
Make Epilepsy Great Again
Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy – F. Scott Fitzgerald The Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California held their annual gala at San Francisco’s Four Seasons Hotel on Saturday, November 10, 2018. It was a 1920’s themed event with dinner, dancing, auction and speakers. The fundraiser was pretty good, but it left […]
Four Seasons of Epilepsy Awareness
Winter, spring, summer or fall… but mostly fall. The 2017 Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California’s annual Candlelight Gala was last weekend. This year, EFNC held the event at the Four Seasons in San Francisco. I have had epilepsy for more than thirty years. I have been photographing epilepsy events for almost ten years. Those of us […]
Run Run Run
I have had epilepsy since I was 16. I had my first seizure one month after running the San Francisco Marathon. For many years afterwards, I continued running with limited success. Mostly, I ran away from the truth about my health. Last weekend, I attended the first annual Seize the Moment 5K walk/run for Epilepsy in […]
Pop Television and Epilepsy Heroes
“People sometimes say that the way things happen in the movies is unreal, but actually it’s the way things happen to you in life that’s unreal.” From the Philosophy of Andy Warhol On Saturday November 19, I photographed the 2016 Candlelight Gala for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California. (I have included the entire photo gallery from […]
10 Years and Walking – National Epilepsy Walk
Electric word, life On Saturday April 16, 2016 I attended the 10th Annual National Walk for Epilepsy in Washington, D.C. I have attended the last seven national walks. In this post I have included at least one photo from each walk and a link to the gallery. When I started attending the national walks, I […]
Purple Day for Epilepsy
Today is Purple Day. Purple Day is for those of us with epilepsy. Canadian Cassidy Megan started Purple Day in 2008 so that people throughout the world could connect with each other and transform how people saw us. I was 16 when I had my first seizure. Cassidy is still only 17. When I was 16, I […]
Defining Epilepsy and Creativity
This post is part of the Epilepsy Blog Relay™ which will run from November 1 through November 30. Follow along and add comments to posts that inspire you. (View my photos from the recent EFNC Gala if you wish too.) Last weekend when I was photographing the 2015 Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California Gala at the […]
For All The World To See
For all the world to see… or not see. Preface The time has not yet come for a complete history of people with epilepsy. For a complete history to be told, those of us who live with epilepsy must create our history. We must write and gather our stories. We must research the topics that we believe […]
EFNC Picture Day
Last week I photographed the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California staff. We met near the Walt Disney Family Museum in the San Francisco Presidio. The Presidio is a historical military fort that guarded the Golden Gate. Although the fort did not protect us from the wind, it provided many places to shoot. I especially enjoyed shooting next to The Walt Disney […]
A Birthday Epilepsy Stroll (with my favorite aliens and the NSA)
Writing is linear. Living with epilepsy is not. So this blog post has started to resemble my life. I am trying to translate it for “you normals.” First: I had an amazing birthday on Saturday. My two children spent the day with me. They woke up early and followed the schedule that they had created. We […]
2015 National Epilepsy Walk
I traveled to Washington, D.C. again for another epilepsy event. The Ninth Annual Walk for Epilepsy was held near the Washington Monument on Saturday morning April 11, 2015. After I received my t-shirt at the walk headquarters downtown, I walked another block to a bookstore where Tavis Miley was speaking about his new book, “My Journey With Maya.” He explained how Maya […]
EFNC 2014 Candlelight Gala Dinner
I’m just a soul whose intentions are good Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood In Oz When I arrived for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California‘s 2014 Candlelight Gala, I noticed that I was “In Oz.” This was not the first time that I had walked into Oz. I have written about […]
My Next 30 Years Living With Epilepsy
At the high school where I teach, students wear shirts that say, “You are stronger than you think.” Besides having epilepsy, I have dyslexia fueled by paranoia, so that the first few times I read the shirt, I thought it said, You are STRANGER than you think. As a person who has lived with epilepsy […]
Twitch and Shout – Advocacy Shaken and Stirred
Some of you may know that I have epilepsy. Some of you may know that next month I will have had epilepsy for thirty years. Others may know that I have been an advocate and spokesperson for several years. I speak, write, photograph and wear t-shirts. I was a Featured Blogger on the old Epilepsy Foundation […]
Music is the Best Medicine
If Music is the best medicine, what do you take with a Whiskey Lullaby? So I went to see Brad Paisley on Saturday night at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Wheatland, California. When I say that I went “to see Brad Paisley,” I mean that I went to talk to him and photograph his show. […]
Part II – I Need Pictures
If you missed Part 1, “If I Could Write A Letter to Brad Paisley,” you can click the link and read it. Mr. Paisley or someone who can control his Twitter feed contacted me which is not as important as the issues surrounding imagery and people with disabilities. I am going to continue the discussion here. […]
If I Could Write Brad Paisley a Letter about Epilepsy
Brad, You’re not supposed to say the word Epilepsy, in a song. It’s just another Saturday night and you are probably busy. You are a big country music Celebrity, and I am just one of millions — one of millions of Americans living with epilepsy, so I do not expect you to read this letter any more […]
Sharon’s Ride for Epilepsy San Diego
Depending on when you met me in the epilepsy community, you may know me as a poised advocate who always seems to have his camera or you might know me as a nervous neurological wreck. When I first visited the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County last February, I was the awkward version of myself. This […]
National Walk for Epilepsy – Purple Day
On Saturday, I participated in the 2014 National Walk for Epilepsy in Washington, DC. It was the fifth time I attended the national event and the Epilepsy Foundation’s 8th annual walk. Today is also international Purple Day. Purple Day was started by Cassidy Megan in 2008 when she was just a kid. (She is still just […]
Emotion Blur – Part 311, Brainstorm
I got to tell you something… Today is 311 day. (March 11.) 311 is a band. 311 can be many other things too, from a government help line to a fictional area code. I am posting tonight so that my Advanced Photography students can learn more about me as a photographer with epilepsy. This week […]
Peace Love and Theft
and the greatest of these is Love. Ten days ago, my friend Chad Barth announced the lineup for 7th Annual Concert for Epilepsy. On New Year’s Eve, country artists Craig Morgan and Love and Theft will perform at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Ten months ago was probably my worst New Year’s Eve. Ever. In two […]
Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California and Katherine Keeney
At the beginning of this month, I photographed Katherine Keeney, the new Executive Director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California, at the EFNC Youth Summer Camp in Occidental, California. SEE THE Photo GALLERY HERE! I also photographed the campers, counselors and the medical volunteers, including Dr. Joe Sullivan from UC San Francisco. In Northern California, […]
National Walk for Epilepsy
Dorothy Gale! This morning when I woke up in my own bed, I finally had an explanation to my recent eight day odyssey. I had survived three (?) Emerald Cities in eight days. I photographed two epilepsy awareness walks (Here are photos from yesterday’s National Walk for Epilepsy). My adventure included lions and super shuttles […]