Monday morning inspiration, love is the remedy

Monday 19th January is officially known as the bluest Monday of the year.  the best thing to do is put some love in your heart and banish the blues. Who better to talk about love than Shakespeare?

There are so many familiar lines from Shakespeare that they often used in casual conversation.
To be or not to be                                       Hamlet
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?   Sonnet 18
Parting is such sweet sorrow                      Romeo and Juliet

Of course I'm sure you can think of lots more, that everyone knows and it doesn't sound pretentious at all to quote him, because really he seems to have an answer for everything.
When we studied Shakespeare at school the teacher helped us understand a lot of the hidden meanings and his use of Language.

Here is the opening scene of Twelfth Night, or What you will, by  Orsino Duke of Illyria. Orsino means bear cub in Italian and so Shakespeare probably chose it to suggest immaturity. Illyria  was the name of a country on the east of the Adriatic sea, now Croatia. So it starts off with music playing.

Orsino .- 
If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting.
The appetite may sicken and so die.
That strain again it had a dying fall.
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more.
Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

music stops.

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou
That notwithstanding thou capacity,
Receiveth as the sea. Nought enters there.
Of what validity and pitch soe'er
But falls into abatement and low price
Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Also in Twelfth night is a love song by Feste the clown that contains the question that has been asked from the dawn of time 'What is love ?'.  Aristotle thought it was a quest, a journey in search of our lost other half.  Feste's song tells us that love is right by us and to make the most of it (I think), do you agree?. Anyway it's a lovely song.

Feste: O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, your true love's coming.
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journeys end in lovers meeting.
Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? Tis not hereafter.
Present mirth hath present laughter.
What's to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty.
Then come kiss me sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

In other words  get on with it and show the ones you care about that you love them.

Motherly love

Make a friend welcome with some treats

Flowers are Always a great way to show you care