Christopher Colzie shares:

I'd like to sharethe personal experience that my 8 1/2 month pregnant wife and I experienced at the Ziggy Marley show in Philadelphia, PA at the TLA on South Street in June or July2003. We were skeptical about going to the show because my wife was like 8 1/2 months pregnant. She insisted that she go because she wanted to experience the free-spirited, love not hate vibration that I had told her about at the shows. I've seen Ziggy Marley 4 times. She's now seenhim twice. Due to the General Admission seating, we ended up in an area with a few stools but we were too late to get one, so I set out on a quest to get her a stool to sit on. After about 13 minutes of searching, I finally found one, after climbing two flights of stairs and getting through the crowd, I returned to her...only to find that someone had already given her a chair and she was comfortably sitting. All of the wonderful people were SO generous to her and I. She didn't want for anything that night and she wasshown nothing but true love by all that we encountered. It was a great feeling to be surrounded by love by total strangers. Our daughter Amari entered our world July 19, 2003 and her favorite CD is Ziggy's Dragonfly (as is mine too)! Thanks Ziggy for giving us a safe, loving place to share a musical treat!

Cynthia Guzman shares:

This is an essay about finding myself at the lowest point in my life and how both Bob and Ziggy pulled me through. Rastafari! This is a true story and I wanted to share it with all of you.

My story starts as I was driving thru the 100 degree weather in Chicago delivering breastpumps with my two children melting in the back seat. I had a hard time finding work and this job allowed me to be with my children and make money to feed them at the same time. It was ideal but challenging.

My goal was always to raise lions not sheep and finding myself a single parent did not mean that my life ethic would change. Sure I could throw the kids in day care and get a 9 to 5 and let the system raise them BUT... As I said I am raising independent lions and not herd animals.

So, they melt and I desperately reach for a Bob CD to pull me up from the depression I am feeling at the moment. I popped in a CD, push a few buttons to find a song, lay my head on the steering wheel, and hear the words "I'm a rainbow too..." I savor those words until the car behind me decides I should get moving. When I look up I see to the left the biggest hot air balloon in the brightest of rainbow colors. I look to the right and I see a house covered with rainbow colored party balloons! I now know the universe will provide all that I need and it becomes my daily mantra. Thank you, Bob.

The story continues with my passion for live music and exposing my children to it. Living in Chicago offers the opportunity to find many free shows and with many years managing a reggae club I have many connections to music. I found out about The Weed Street Festival and Ziggy is playing! Wahoo! The cost???, A suggested donation of something which I don't recall at this time. But, that means I can get in for free and I need the vibe in a serious way.

The day is a shade of gray that goes beyond gray. The ominous clouds are building and the skies weep. (quite heavily)

I show up early for the concert and the kids look at me as if I'm crazy bringing them to a concert in the pouring rain. There are probably three people at the fest and I'm sure they all work there. We find a dry spot and we sit. We sit, we sit and we sit for about three hours. In that time span I am asked at least every 5 minutes if we could go home. My response is the same. "Ziggy will be here and he will play, I believe in that because I need the vibe."

Finally it's time so we make our way to the front of the stage. First ones here and I am excited to get a great view. Still standing in the rain with my little ones dripping and chilly on the outside but warm on the inside. A few straggler's come in behind us and as I firmly believed Ziggy entered the stage and the show began!

They played in the rain and as the show continued, the sky cleared and the sun made it's appearance. The crowd came and the show was pure magic. I don't know if the rainbow showed up that day in Chicago but I do know it showed up in my life.

I once again found the belief in my heart that the universe would provide and it did. Today I now own that company I was delivering breastpumps for. I am a board certified Lactation Consultant and am still homeschooling Xanath, my 14 year old beauty and Zion my 11 year old dreamer.

Every time my phone rings and with the business it is often, both the callers, myself and all you are in earshot get to hear "There's a Rainbow in the sky all the time...don't be blind."

Adrianne Hazelwood shares:

I have been a huge reggae fan since the late seventies. I never had the chance to see Bob but I have NEVER missed The Melody Makers or a Ziggy or Stephen solo show that has come through Chicago. And luckily, we Chicagoans have the opportunity to enjoy awesome Reggae shows!

I remember back in about 1986 or 87 when Black Uhuru came to Chicago. The Melody Makers opened the show. Ziggy, Stephen, Sharon and Cidella were SO YOUNG. My friends and I were so excited to see Sly & Robby with Puma and the rest of Black Uhuru that we just felt like we hit the jackpot getting to see Bob's legacy starting out. The Melody Makers really were a nice surprise as the opening act. Ziggy was sounding young andspirited, testing his voice and feeling his role of the front man. Stephen was shy with his back to the crowd most of the show. And Sharon and Cidella were really cute dressed in little pink dresses and getting into those early moves. They were all SO YOUNG. They sounded nothing like they do today. Ican really say that I feel like I've watched the Marleys grow up and as they have grown in size so has their sound and presence.

I've seen Ziggy 5 times in the last year. He's been to Chicago 3 times and I went to the Bob Marley Reggae Festival in Kansas City last summer and to the Bob Marley Birthday Celebration/Carribean Festival in Miami this past February. Ziggy has such a profound presence and huge catalog to draw from that his shows are never the same. He is a joy to watch because it shows in his stage performance that he really loves what he does - bringing his message of love and justice in Reggae music. As far as I am concerned, an award should be given out for Entertainer of the Century, and Ziggy should get it!!

Robert Cabana shares:

We have a story about Ziggy's Music. We are avid listeners of reggae music and the message it brings to the world about consciousness, love and doing the right thing. I have seen Ziggy in Connecticut at Lake Compounce in the 80's, in Colorado at the Paramount Theatre in the 90's and in Massachusetts at the Calvin Theatre in the past three years (both times with my wife).

We picked up Ziggy's latest cd, Love is My Religion, soon after it came out. We played it in the car over and over and our children (Ryan 7, Kyle 5, Erin 4) all sing along. Erin's favorite is Love is My Religion. Kyle's favorite is Black Cat. We listened to Black Cat often, and the kids asked if we could get a cat. My wife Kathleen and I discussed it and she had cats growing up, so we thought it would be great to get a cat to keep ourchocolate lab Murphy company. We wanted to get the cat as a Christmas present from Santa, and it had to be a black cat of course.

Kathleen looked into getting a cat from the local shelters that have an abundance of cats (probably more than they can even take care of properly). She called 2 or 3 shelters and they all said they had issues with releasing a cat into a home with small children. What's wrong with having pets around small, loving children that will play with it?

We didn't know what to do as all the shelters has the same (stupid) rule and it appeared we were out of luck. Then on November 15, 2006Kathleen called me at work. Kyle had been looking out the window and right at the back porch, scratching at the window was a black kitten. We live in a residential neighborhood in CT with woods surrounding the house, and the 4 week old kitten had appeared out of nowhere (probably from out in the woods). It had a broken leg, fleas, ticks and was wet and weathered from being outside. The local animal control came and picked it up, nursed it back to good health, gave it all the tests it needs and kept it for a few weeks. They were so nice and helpful and knew we wanted to keep it.

"Ziggy" came home a few weeks later. He is the happiest cat and shows no signs of living in the wilderness or even the broken leg. The animal control officer asked for the cd with the song, which we gave to her. Kathleen even wrote an editorial in the local paper thanking the animal control for their help and trying to tell the story since it was around Christmastime, trying to get people to believe there is a greater force that intervened and gave us the cat (and it wasn't Santa Claus).

Our kids love their black cat "Ziggy", and "Love is our Religion".

Thanks,

The Cabanas Bob, Kathleen, Ryan, Kyle, Erin, Murphy and Ziggy

Portia Hall shares:

Have you ever seen someone smile so beautifully and with so much spirit it made you smile? Well I have If you know me you know that I love any music with a positive message. I gravitate to any music of that sort regardless of genre. So it should be no surprise that I had another wonderful concert experience at the hands of a member of reggae's first family. David "Ziggy" Marley is the eldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley. Tonight I watched in pure amazement and delight as he performed selected songs from his current album "Love is my Religion" including my favorite "Into The Groove" and "A Lifetime and also included in the set was the classic songs "Lee and Molly" and "Tomorrow People". Of course he spiced up the set list with several of his father's songs including one of my favorites "Is This Love". This is the third time seeing children of the Bob Marley perform (I've seen Damian and Stephen as well). I was accompianied by my sister I was excited about that because she is one of the key reasons I'm interested in Reggae. She thanked me for making he come to the show and promptly purchased "Love is My Religion." She still listens to it almost everyday. My girl Bianca came as well she also attended the Stephen Marley show with me. She surprised me when she showed up with a Bob Marley T-Shirt on... I had gotten her into the spirit of things!

My favorite moment of the entire show was when Ziggy came to my non-singing behind and put the microphone up to me and smiled only like Ziggy can. I sung along to "Love is My Religion". I sounded terrible but it didn't matter Ziggy kept smiling. That smile is like no other, his energy is so positive and wonderful when he smiles he makes you smile no matter how your feeling. I also got a chance to touch him...I know this may sound wacky but I needed to touch some one with such positive energy and not for the sake of saying "I touched Ziggy Marley" It was just a spiritual moment that and I left the venue floating on cloud nine.

Every Marley show I go to I always meet some very interesting and genuinely kind people. The mood that you are in is almost indescribable at there shows. For me it's a spiritual thing. When I'm there I cannot stop dancing or moving in some manner. Which brings me to another favorite moment of the show when he performed "Look Who's Dancing". When I go out I hardly ever dance but I danced last night...It was funny because that song is so perfect for me. As watched Ziggy and his talented background singers dance and move and I saw his seemingly endless abyss of locs fly around I knew that his father was proudly smiling on him...

Natalia Paz Luzanto Montaner shares:

Once, I was navigating by internet, searching for pictures that could show peace nowadays, that could show unity between people, between the engine of the world, the youth. So I was just wandering through those pictures until I found something I liked. It was a complete carpet of reggae concerts, of peace, of one love. Ziggy Marley was on one of those pictures, he was singing on stage, and you could see on his face an expression: a feeling of love for music. So I kept on looking more pictures, and I, as a follower of his music, started listening some songs of him at that moment.

And I thought, "Well, now this is what I call real music." Nevertheless it's very unified to reggae roots, Ziggy also mixes his own style, within originality and African sounds. It's a modern and fresh music, with a happy flavor behind the musical notes. The use of so many stringed instruments gives this music a special ambient, relaxed, happy, comfortable and truly natural. As Rastafarians would say: Irie.

And as I kept on looking those pictures and listening to Ziggy's lyrics, voice, power, potential, message, I thought... "You know, this human being really has something to say." And even if it is a love song, the simple music is just beautiful. It transmits positive energy and gives good mood. His songs are invaded of positive vibrations, of light.

It is clear, that he's an authentic musician; his music possesses own personality, essence. His lyrics, with a lot of simplicity, are meaningful, with a clear idea though. It can be just a song of hope, a thought, a message of love, of friendship, a message of life, for the people. Ziggy wants to be heard through his music, his music wants to tell us something. And as we know, his music comes from his heart; the message is true. No matter what religion, he only knows that love must be everywhere, and I'm pretty sure, that anyone that can feel the groove, closes his/her eyes, and just let the music go through the soul, we can hear for real. We are able to hear.

And on that first picture I found of him singing...the photographer wrote down of it: Ziggy Marley, not just a musician, a messenger of love as well.

As his father, with his enormous legacy that he passed on to a whole generation, and certainly to future generations; a legacy of stories, of truths, of feelings, Ziggy can also give us a piece of his own history, throw us his arrow, going right through our hearts.

Mandisa Deskins shares:

Greetings! Since Ziggy sings a lot about LOVE and has inspired me, I decided to share some of my own thoughts that I had jotted down in my notebook. And so here it is...

"Thoughts"

Love involves trust...
(like fall bakwards without looking, with full confidence that the one standing behind will catch you),
Trust requires reliability,
and reliability allows inter-dependency,
...however, too much dependency breeds weakness in self, and de/oppresses others.

Devotion is the result of faith,
the roots of faith run deep (like still waters),
and require time to grow,
and its tree, like old folks deeply imbedded in tradition, is not easily uprooted,
but be patient for the day of harvest, for Jah fruit is, oh, so sweet!

Fussing and fighting disunifies brothers and sisters,
(experience teaches us),
Communication is key -- when talking is done from heart to heart,
where does misunderstanding come in?
Seek harmony -- the true expression of love.

Self-expansion encompasses others, and reduces
the multiplicity and complexity of the universe,
brings us closer to our/God/selves,
closer to one/wholeness.

Give thanks.