Darn, another year flies by. I recall when I was in my 30s, a senior patient told me, ” the older you get the faster the years fly”. I didn’t really notice this till i reached 40 (a while ago now!), but yes, it does seem to be the case. 2026 has been one of personal learning. I find my self coming back to core values more and more, those espoused by the Eastern traditions of the Vedas and Yoga philosophy. Dharma (duty); artha (material possessions); kama (enjoyments); moksha (enlightenment).

Performing our role with attention to detail and striving for perfection, whilst relinquishing attachment to the results is “yoga in daily life”. It applies as much in surgery as it does in other roles and aspects of life. Perhaps in surgery the outcomes are much more tangible. Whatever our field of endeavour, the only thing within our control is performing the action well. What happens after that maybe the result of many extraneous factors. In fact there is more outside our control than within. So becomes the art of letting go, letting go, and letting go again.

Whilst this is the “yoga in daily life”, there is a whole art to it. The ironic thing is that all these actions that we value, require our attention. Our energy flows in the direction of our attention. Reacquainting ourselves periodically with what is important to us is a useful exercise. Pulling ourselves “out of life” once a year to reflect, focus, plan and prioritise is essential and these become our “sighting buoys” (using open water triathlon terminology!) as we journey through life. In open water swimming, every few strokes (the action), one has to pop their head up and ensure they are swimming at the target (goals/values/priorities). Wind and tides (extraneous factors) need to be given consideration also or else you get blown off course. So it is in life also. The art is to have clear attention whilst letting go of attachment to results. Easier said than done! But the training ground of life teaches us to get better at this skill.

It takes self knowledge to know and understand what we have agency over and what is beyond our control. Covid days were extremely challenging for many of us myself included. I was at odds with many of the public health interventions. And when voicing my legitimate concerns on various social media channels I was then shut down by trolls and censored by various regulatory bodies. It was a disempowering time and many of us felt we lacked agency.

The year has ended on a very sad note with the Bondi terrorist shootings. For the life of me, I still don’t understand what possesses individuals to go on a shooting spree like that in the name of religion, radical islam to be more specific. How messed up can they be that a fundamentalist ideology can be so strong that it overrides our natural essence of humanity. Take a Jewish kid and a Islamic kid and put them together. More than likely they will work out games to play, not methods of killing each other. The same applies to an Indian Hindu and a Pakistani Muslim child; an Aboriginal and a white Australian. Maybe if 5 year olds run the world, our planet would be a better place!

I know there are some that believe that Islam, even moderate Islam has no place in a western democracy. I think this is an easy escape. I am not of this belief as I know many Muslims that practice their faith, whilst still assimilating well into Australian society. I don’t claim to have in depth knowledge of the Koran, but understand that many of their tenets have been misconstrued or misinterpreted. I only state this on the basis of personal interaction with moderate Muslims who are the vast majority. The challenge for governments in a pluralistic multicultural society like Australia is how to identify the rat bags. And yes rat bags exist in all corners of society not only in Islam. I find it sad that these things even need to be discussed. Maybe we need to become more comfortable with uncomfortable conversations.

When it comes to the Bondi tragedy, it really seemed like this was a matter of time. The current governments have been lame about stamping out anti Jewish hate speech. It should have been tackled hard and strong immediately after the Hamas atrocity. Instead governments have tried to tip toe around it and appease their left wing voter cohort. Instead they left the Jewish community high and dry. No wonder Josh Frydenburgh was so strong in his words.

Back to the present moment, its a time to take stock of all that is good, Light, and positive. Even amongst suffering there are things to be grateful for. The Hindu tradition has the Festival of lights called Diwali, The Jewish that of Hanukkah and in Christianity it’s Xmas that is celebrated. Whatever the religious origins, they are all times of pausing, reflecting and coming together and being grateful for family, friends and the big and small things in life.

Wishing you all a very Merry Xmas

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