My Emotional and Spiritual Journey

As a little boy just starting school in Haiti, had a fortune teller insisted that I would grow up to be a psychiatrist, I would have told him he was nuts, he was the one who needed a psychiatrist! And had he told me my first wife would be a Jewish American, and my second a Christian Lebanese, I would have told him to stop being so silly! And here I am, a psychiatrist listening daily to the emotional pain of others and offering advice and remedy, maintaining a thriving practice in Delray Beach, Florida, with its heavy population of Jewish retirees. My life has been a cascade of events and experiences. My transformation is often a surprise to me, although I have kept my own identity in terms of who I am and where I am from. While I could not foresee as a child how the circumstances of my life would play out, I can remember the moments when I took a leap of faith which propelled me to my career and my life’s journey. It has been an exhilarating experience. ... I have pleasant memories of my childhood. I loved to play soccer, fly kites, go to the movies and hunt. The sling shot, which we call "fistibal", was my companion during my summer vacations. We used it to bring down the highest yellow mangoes at the top of the tree, as well as to hunt birds. The hummingbirds were so quick that it was impossible to catch them. Why would someone want to catch them, anyway? They somehow showed us what life should be—fun. They are in constant motion. Their wings flap 200 times a second during a display dive. They get their calories by eating nectar from flowers. Their tongue licks the sugar 13 times per second. For them, life appears to be blissful. In retrospect, I am glad I never succeeded in spoiling their bliss.