Me and Bob Marley

I have written and spoken about how important music is in my life. I listen to music all the time and it reflects my moods, my emotions and allows me to flows. Music has always been my way to remember a time and place in my life and it has been the way I have tracked the timeline of my life.

A few years back I truly started to enjoy reggae. I loved everything about it. The messages, the slower more grounded beat, and I loved how I seemed to center in my body while the music played.

Prior to discovering my love for reggae I was into the hard hitting, pounding of the drums, played by bands such as Buck Cherry, Nickleback, Metallica, and  AC/DC. I loved getting lost in the head thrashing of my hair, the dirty beat, the words and the anger. When something as slow as reggae would come on I would walk off the floor with disgust and wonder what the appeal was. Secretly, I started enjoying some of the beats but found much fear in my body as I would start to move to it.

I was out dancing at a club one night and the DJ was playing Buck Cherry and followed up with Nickleback; I was in heaven…then he slowed things down and I heard the starting riff of something that slammed me in heart. I needed to keep moving, I needed to feel this beat.

I knew I had heard this song over the years but for the first time I was noticing my body respond to the beats of Bob Marley’s One Love. I was getting more and more into my body as he sang on and it felt amazing. I am not aware of what songs followed the start of Bob Marley but know I danced for the next hour to several different styles of reggae. Some beats were faster, some slower, all of them were sending me deeper and deeper into my heart.

For the months and years to follow reggae became my music of choice for dancing. I found myself wanting to learn the dance styles, to be immersed in the culture of the soul and dance. I learned to wine, although not well, and loved getting “down and sweaty” with my brother and sisters of the dance. The more I felt the reggae in my body the less I was able to relate to the hard hitting, pounding of the rock I loved to dance to.

As I got deeper into my own personal journey I noticed that although I loved all music still it was reggae that called to my heart. More specifically it is Bob Marley that calls to my soul.

The Moment I feel the first riff of any song I feel my soul’s light wake up and start to shine. I feel the energy of the music filling my body and as I start to move my knees, hips, and upper body.

I feel the joy rising in my soul and I feel my light shining out of my body. It is as though light is shining out of every pore making me look like solid bright night. I no longer exist in my body; I have become one with the Universe. Bob Marley is the tool that gets me in touch with my true self, my true beauty…my core self.