Having fun helping others

I brought my wife Karin to a Christmas fair on Sunday. It was held in a tiny village called Sterksel.

The fair was held in a very old cloister. Providentia. This cloister is the focal point of adjacent buildings where (severely) handicapped people are nursed.

Most of the inhabitants suffer from different handicaps. Often the underlying cause is Epilepsy.

Although Karin has a day time job (which isn’t much fun) it has always been a dream of her to do something for others. And preferably not by just donating money (which also is very o.k.) but by actually doing something by helping.

And although she, like many other working mothers, often has a difficult time managing work, a household etcetera she still finds time for this activity.

I went back in the afternoon to enjoy the fair and give her a lift back home. The first thing I noticed when I entered the cloister and observed Karin from a distance, doing what she really loves and enjoys, is that she was smiling from head to toe. What a difference I thought between seeing her 'glow' in this surrounding or reading her body language after a day at work at a company only interested in shareholder value.

And once again I came to the conclusion that when you help others from within your heart you are not only helping the other but you are actually helping yourself become happier too. A classic win-win situation.

The fact that Karin works at this Epilepsy center as a volunteer has also a bit to do with the fact that our daughter, when she was just in her early teens suffered from epileptic seizures. I can still remember vividly how upset and scared we were when we first noticed these seizures. Not to speak of the fact that it must have been very disturbing for our daughter too.

She went though all the necessary tests and scans. But eventually the seizures disappeared. We think we are very fortunate with the epilepsy disappearing. Although many children and adults can live a fairly 'normal' life suffering from epilepsy, a great many feel they are more or less handicapped by this disease. They are more or less hindered in their day to day life.

Epilepsy surgery involves a brain operation to control epileptic seizures. Different types of epilepsy require different types of operations. Epilepsy can cause temporary loss of function in one or more parts of the brain. If these parts are involved with understanding, organisation and communication processing difficulties in using language can result. Epilepsy affects all age groups. It tends to affect men more than women.