Uplifting Reggae.....One Love (Bob Marley)

Get up and dance people. I have to start the new year off with this song. This song speaks for itself. Love is universal, if ever there was a song that I would want to be played in every corner in the world it would be this one......
In 2010 I encourage you to love 100% more than you think you possibly can. Love your brothers, love your sisters......god damn......love your hater's and your enemies too. Let's kill them with love in 2010.........

2009 was fine.......

As the year comes to a close, I want to take this time to thank everyone who reads my blog. I have always felt like I have nothing to say.....like there is nothing of myself to share because I'm so plain. Just ordinary, the one who always fades into the shadows, the one who no one will remember.

I lived my life just fulfilling the status quo. My one resolution for 2009 was to break free from the life I had created for myself thus far and start living the live I wanted to live. I wanted to become a better person and live life just for me and not for anyone else. I wanted to wake up everyday and not worry about what the future holds for me and to not be afraid of whatever failures may come my way.....

I'm happy to say that I feel that I have achieved what I set out to do for myself this year. I spent the year getting to know me all over again, loving myself, trusting myself, believing in myself and most importantly forgiving myself. I feels wonderful to know that I challenged myself this year and that I am ending the year with a sense of accomplishment. With confidence that I am stronger, more resilient and more faithful than I ever let myself believe before.

I close the year with a sense of belonging. I have finally found my place in my relationships with friends and family. I know who I am and I can clearly see myself becoming the person I want to be.

I started this blog to share my love of reggae music and share all the lessons I learn in life. I hoped that people would enjoy the positive message in the music I share here, would find something to think about in the tidbits I post here on life lessons and I hoped to give advice and get advice and opinions on the stuff I post about relationships. Most importantly I wanted to prove to myself that I had a voice, that I had something worth reading to post, that there are things I have to share with the world.

I have done just that this year, and I hope to continue doing the same next year.I will try to open up more and share bits and pieces here and there as I continue on my journey of becoming a better person in the years to come.....

Feel Good Song (Take Me to the West Indies - Rita Marley)

Its winter time. When it starts getting cold I just spend all day thinking about going on vacation somewhere warm. Always brings this song into mind. Enjoy.....its a nice video and the song is good too.

Life Lessons.........Staring at Pumpkins Doesn't Make Them Grow

"Staring at pumpkins doesn't make them grow!"
So simply said, I came across this statement in one of Alexander McCall Smith's novels from The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. For some reason this quote stayed with me, it has become one of the many sayings that I use to get going in times when I need that extra push.

If you plant pumpkins and expect them to grow, you have to put work into it watering, weeding and tending to the patch in order for them to grow. Well its the same principle if you have things in your life that you need to change. You cannot just sit there looking at the same set of circumstances every day waiting for things to change. You have to actually have to work hard to make changes if you expect results.

So just get going and start working on the things in your life that need to be changed. Start working with the little pumpkins and work your way up. Change takes hard work but the rewards are so worth the it..... Tell me if you had a pumpkin patch, wouldn't you want to see huge, juicy, mouth watering pumpkins in that patch? Well your life is a pumpkin patch so stop sitting there staring at it and start tending to it.........

How do you define "In A Relationship"?

I've been thinking lately about definations and how drastically one person's defination a relationship can differ from the next person. I'm speaking here specifically about dating. So you meet some one, like each other start hanging out often....you are "getting to know each other", then if you guys are still hanging out after a while it becomes "dating" until eventually he/she is your bf/gf.......

Here's what I want to know.....How do you make these definations? How and what determines if some one is your boyfriend/girlfriend? I'm just saying....people define these things very differently. One person might think that they are dating and another person might think that they are still just getting to know each other. So how exactly does this work? Can't wait to hear what you have to say.........

On a similar note, just threw in this treat for you. Perfect song to get things started right for the night whether you are just getting to know someone, dating or in a relationship.....

Women In Reggae.........Etana (I am not afraid)

I want to send this one out to all the young women out there that are living their lives boldly.......

Reggae for Bob Dylan fans

I am really curious .......what do Bob Dylan fans think of reggae music....?

This tribute album I came across features some of Bob Dylan's most loved songs ("Lay Lady Lay", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Subterranean Blues", "Knocking on heavens door"...) performed by an all star line up of great reggae artists such as Beres Hammond, Gregory Issacs, Luciano and Sizzla. I dont know much about Bob Dylan but my overall impression from listening to this album is that he is a very talented song writer.

Speaking from a reggae lover's perspective, I have to say that the reggae versions of Bob's songs are better than the original. The reggae beats and melodies really improve upon his already great lyrics and just make the songs more expressive and filled with emotion to me.... I added my favorite song from this album below. Take a listen and tell me what you think......

Does reggae work with Bob Dylan's music?

Song I'm loving.......Lioness on the rise (Queen Ifricia)

The Jamaica Star :: News :: Two-year-old niece molested...MOB BURNS UNCLE'S HOUSE :: September 29, 2009

I always say that Jamaicans are passionate people. Sometimes people have a difficult time understanding why it is so common for Jamaicans to take the law into their own hands and attack people who commit certain crimes (child molesters/ rapists etc). Take a look at this story that appeared recently in the Jamaica Star. A woman leaves her 2 year old daughter with her uncle to run some errands and comes back to find her baby molested. Bleeding from her vagina.....

The Jamaica Star :: News :: Two-year-old niece molested...MOB BURNS UNCLE'S HOUSE :: September 29, 2009

How do you hear that and not think this man deserves to be beaten so severely and taught a lesson to make sure he would never dare harm another child like that again? It's passion, Jamaicans see something like this happen and they think, what if it was my son/ daughter? They feel the pain for the innocent little child and that makes "innocent until proven guilty" seem insignificant. What becomes significant for them is to act. Act to seek revenge for a helpless child, act to protect all their children from harm, act to make sure that all the child abusers out there know what will happen to them if they choose to act out their evil desires.

There is a saying in Jamaica 'If you mess with children, you better hope the police catches you first'.It is understood that there will be retaliation if they are caught. I wonder if there would be less instances of child molestation in the world if child molesters were more afraid to be caught by people than by the cops........

To date or not to date?

So a friend of mine recently shared this dilemma with me and asked for advice. Just thought I'd put it out there to see what other people think about this situation.

So you meet a guy or a gal and you guys have instant chemistry. You like each other.....You like the persons looks, personality, sense of humor and you have similar goals in life with the person. You think that this person might just be the one for you and you wanna pursue things to maybe have a relationship with this person. However, before things get too serious you find out that your potential perfect match is married. Where do you go from there? Do you take what the person tells you about their marriage into account or it is game over right there?

Would you or would you not get into a relationship with a married person regardless of the circumstances or would you date a married person depending on what their specific situation was?

Uplifting Reggae.....Stronger (Fantan Mojan)

I just love this song. The first time I heard this song, I knew that it would it my song for 2009.......

Basically the whole message of this song is that as long as we keep forging on and pushing ahead in life we will become stronger because we are blessed by god ("Jah"/"Selassie"). Check out Fantan Mojah on myspace. His music exudes with positivity and hope. My two personal favorites from his latest album "Hail The King" are "you can make it" and "Fight to survive". Both songs are on his myspace page. Take a listen and see what Fantan Mojah is all about for yourself........

Life Lessons......Honesty Is not always the best policy....

I've always considered myself to be a very honest person but as I grow older I am starting to realise that honesty is not always the best policy in life. Yea, this kinda sounds weird but I am not talking about what we all know about not cheating or stealing etc....

What I'm talking about here is telling little white lies. I am beginning to find that some situations do call for a little white lie. It seems to me that honesty can and should be sacrificed in the name of niceness. It's a fact...Nice people lie a lot but they are well liked and people always gravitate towards them. No one wants to hear that they look fat, ugly, that their idea is stupid or all that negative stuff that we choose to divulge in the name of honesty.

Next time you are in a spot choose to be nice and lie that the ugly dress is not so bad or that the bad hair cut is OK........

Niceness is sometimes more important than honesty. Our friends and family will definitely appreciate it........

Reggae in Pop Culture Series...........Underneath It all (No Doubt ft. Lady Saw)

This song was pretty popular a few years ago. It was on Billboard top 40, won a Grammy and was nominated for an award at the MTV video music awards. Pretty good pop song with a reggae vibe and featuring the Queen of Dance Hall music, Lady Saw. Lady Saw was not featured in the video for the song. I think that she did not receive much public recognition for her role in making this song a hit for No Doubt and was really surprised when I came across this video of a concert they did together in Europe....


If you are not a fan of No Doubt and just wanna skip to Lady Saw, she comes on around the three minute mark.