March is Epilepsy Awareness Month

27 Mar, 2026

*sigh*.

I had every intention of writing an essay about epilepsy and posting it this month; I did write a draft last week from my iPad but I haven't taken the time to go back and edit it. Truth be told, it needs a lot of editing so just thinking about doing it is a bit intimidating. I'm fully confident in my abilities to review and edit my own writing, but this is one of those times I'd really love to hand it to someone else and say, "have at it."¹

For context: in Canada, March is Epilepsy Awareness Month. I believe worldwide November is traditionally Epilepsy Awareness month, and I am happy to observe both. So maybe I have more time to get to that essay after all. But March 26th is also Purple Day, an internationally recognized day to celebrate and raise awareness of Epilepsy. Everyone is encouraged to wear purple (I did, by accident!), and lights across various cities are lit purple as part of the celebration.

Even though I didn't write in length about Epilepsy this month, I did end up crafting a post on social media. Unfortunately while people engaged with it in the form of likes and boosts, nobody stopped to have a conversation. Ah well, that's life online - nobody likes to reach out, likes are the least effort that is supposed to convey support.

Well, all that aside, for the first time since being diagnosed in 2019 I visited the local city sign to see it lit up purple. A fun night spent with my wife, having dinner at the mall before strolling over to see it.

Some photos (click to embiggen):

Giant letters making up the word OTTAWA lit up in purple at night. The light is reflecting on the wet pavement below.

A giant W lit in purple lighting. Traffic lights and cars can be seen in the background to the right.

Giant letters making up the word OTTAWA lit up in purple at night. The letters are a lighter shade of purple while the reflection on the wet pavement is a deeper purple. Most of the rest of the picture is hazy and out of focus.

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Seriously, if you want to have a look I don't mind. It is really messy though - I wrote it out stream-of-consciousness style so it's a little out of order in some ways.↩

#Epilepsy #echo