My Light Reflections

To read Dr. Monita Soni's My Light Reflections, is to try and take the measure of light in its myriad illuminations, the shifting rays that color a landscape stretching from Huntsville, Alabama to Mumbai, Jaipur, the Aravalli hills, to a garden, a wilderness, a "e;reflection pond,"e; a kitchen, an artist's studio, and a pathology lab. Her book is lesson, a lexicon, a legend, story, journey, travelogue, a gift of laugher and exquisite joy. Dr. Soni's reflections are illuminations; they are moonlight and sunlight, science, and art and "e;a trajectory of life,"e; to borrow the title of her initial poem. To read her poetry is to truly "e;step out in pure awe."e;Dr. Soni's kaleidoscope nourishes the creative spirit as the myriad reflections that bring to view family relationships-the love for a father who quotes the Bhagavad Gita, Arabic poetry, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain, for a son who lives in Jaipur, a daughter who is described as a moon-maiden. The book is savory "e;parathas"e; (griddle-flaky flat bread) and mangos. It is stories of sisters, the very "e;keepers of each other's identity"e;: it is bed tea, and "e;butterscotch laughter."e; My Light Reflections traces the soul's journey to that place within where the "e;thousand petal lotus blooms."e; Dr. Soni reminds us as loving earthly beings that "e;our body is precious; it is our vehicle for awakening."e; A painter, poet, physician and philosopher, her words are prescriptions for how to live both fully and well.