Seize the day; put no trust in the morrow!

A friend, Trevor Kirkland, was killed Tuesday August 11th at 5 AM as he biked to work when he was hit by a Pontiac Sunfire headed in the same direction on Maclure Road.

It is a sobering reminder of how ephemeral life can be considering I spoke to him late Monday afternoon, never imagining it would be the last time I would see him alive.

I met Trevor shortly after I took the first painful step, homelessness, on the life altering journey that gave birth to the person I am becoming today.

He was one of the people who taught me to look beyond the clichés and the ‘everyone knows’ about addiction.

Watching Trevor struggle to find sobriety, to move into recovery and wellness made crystal clear what a stone cold bitch addiction was. His struggle highlighted the incredible ignorance and lack of understanding contained in the statement “all they have to do is quit; or want to quit”.

Watching and talking with Trevor about addiction, sobriety, slips, temptation and life was an educational, a learning experience.

Knowing Trevor and others, observing up close on a daily basis addiction, experiencing both homelessness and grinding poverty, dealing with welfare and other parts of ‘the system’ – government/charities/etc – so appalled the accountant/businessman side of me with its pointless waste and numerous, major barriers to recovery, wellness, getting out of poverty and back on one’s feet that I was driven to advocate for the changes needed to stop wasting more money increasing the problem than it would take to do it correctly and effectively and reduce these social problems.

His parents were out from Edmonton to see him for the first time in years. I and another friend sat with him on Saturday while he was waiting for his parents to swing by and pick him up. We laughed and joked that, given where his parent’s hotel was, they must have gotten lost; enjoying a real laugh when they arrived and had gotten lost.

I know how important it was to Trevor that his parents were visiting; how happy it made him.

He had a good job, was in the process of moving out of a basement suite into a trailer in a trailer park just off Maclure, just celebrated his birthday, and had spent time reconnecting with his parents … and Tuesday morning he was struck and killed while riding to work in the early morning dark and rain.

I know a lifeguard who has ‘live each day as if it’s your last’ tattooed on his side.

Some days, when I am trying to make a dollar do the work of twenty or scrounge up enough nickels and pennies to have a $1 to spend for the meal, the thought of the money to be made going back to accounting, or some other well paying employment, is SO tempting.

It is the sagacity embodied in ‘live each day as if it’s your last’ that allows me not to fall prey to the lure of the almighty dollar.

Not that I would not mind earning a few extra dollars, but I want to do it pursuing a course of action, a goal, a purpose that I consider important; changes I believe need to be made to create the type of society I want to live in and leave as a legacy.

The old me would have gone for the money and/or played it safe. The person I am becoming is strong enough to embrace ‘live each day as if it’s your last’ and accept the risks and consequences inherent in living each day as if it’s your last.

It is this truth, this final lesson – that any day can be your last day, which Trevor’s death bears witness to.

I do not want my last thoughts to be wishing I had pursued dreams, taken more chances and made more mistakes.

By striving to continue living my life in balance and congruity with the paradigm ‘live each day as if it’s your last’ life will not only be more interesting, challenging and fun but also accord honour to a friend’s life.