Our Canada – August-September 2019

SHOWCASE

I

wasborninGeorgia,U.S.S.R,

and came to Canada when I

was four years old. My husband

Esfandiar was born in Iran and

mmigrated to Canada in 1987. Our

hildren, Shanaz and Jean-Diar,

ach have a partner in life (Bran-

don and Reilly respectively) with

diverse ethnic backgrounds. My

husband and I are proud grand-

parents as our daughter Shanaz

and Brandon welcomed our

first grandchild on March 2; his

name is Lukenzo Kal Correia.

Our beautiful little “Luka”

has a mix of Georgian, Per-

sian, Jamaican and Guyanese

hg.To me, this unique blend is a

perfect recipe, and it’s the reason I was

inspired to write my first-ever children’s

book series, Honeycake: A Family of

Spices, based on my own family and our

diverse ethnic backgrounds.

When I left the corporate world to be-

come a Reiki master, I never looked back.

Reiki is often described as an alternative

medicine in which a “universal energy” is

said to be transferred through the palms of

the practitioner to the patient to encour-

age emotional or physical healing. I knew

that this was what I was put on Earth to

do. Because of my Reiki training, I am

committed to my personal growth, heal-

ing and living my best life; and to inspiring

others to do the same. This is what I teach

my clients on a daily basis. So, transition-

ing into becoming a writer and sharing the

same lessons and tools with children was

seamless for me. My books and my career

change were not planned; the universe

showed me the way, so I had to follow my

instinct, and I’m so glad I did. I feel like a

totally di­erent person and I see things in

such a di­erent way.

The fact that I have no formal training

as a writer didn’t stop me from trying. I al-

ways wanted to write my biography some-

day, later down the road, because I’ve had

so many experiences in my life. But I never

had any intention of writing anything else,

especially not a children’s book series. But

the universe sent me a sign, and the mes-

sages were in me to share, and they simply

had to come out. I wrote five books in four

days—I simply could not stop.

I was inspired to write these books when

my daughter Shanaz became pregnant and

I realized that I was going to become a

grandmother. In honour of my own grand-

mother, I decided to bake a honey cake—a

traditional Jewish cake from my native

Georgia, which is typically baked for Rosh

Hashanah and other special celebrations.

It was a full-circle moment for me because

my “Bebi” taught me how to make a honey

cake when I was a young girl.

LIFE LESSONS

Theconnectionbetweenthe cake and

my grandchild-to-be lay in the mix of dif-

ferent spices, which I realized was much

like the mix of di­erent ethnicities in my

family. There are all these di­erent spices

in a honey cake, like cinnamon, cloves and

nutmeg, and here is my grandson with all

these di­erent mixes of ethnicities. As I

was baking, I realized that he was going to

be my “Little Honeycake,” which gave me

the idea of the name for the series.

In my first installment of the series,

the grandmother (the literary version of

myself) explains why she calls her grand-

children “Honeycakes” while she teaches

the fictional character Nala how to bake a

Medea (back
right) with her
mother and sis-
ters in Florida
in 1989.

A FAMILY OF SPICES

Just like the spices in a honey cake, a blend of ethnicities

adds flavour to life by Medea Kalantar, Toronto

I

immigrated

children,

each

don

diverse

husband

parents

heritage. To

38 Our Canada AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019