Gravity

William Shakespeare once famously stated in A Midsummer Night's Dream the following, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." What makes it such a stirring quote is how it is representative of many of Shakespeare's most moving written works; to ignore what can be seen and to gravitate towards what can be felt.

We live in a world where we've lost the ability to pay attention to the vibes around us. We are conditioned to fall in love with the physical versus substance. It is a failure in recognizing the world that dances around us without being grasped.

I began rummaging through Shakespeare's works when I was 15 years old. Immediately, I was attracted to the magical properties beneath the fabric of the storytelling; there is more to the world than what can be seen. There is an energy, palpable at times, elusive in other instances, that runs through the spider-web around us. I drank his writings and spent ample time reading between the lines, to attempt to comprehend the story behind the story at such a young age.

In some stories, it lasts mere days, take Romeo and Juliet. In others, it can last a lifetime. Time is of no significance when encountered with such force. And I think Shakespeare understood that. He paid attention. To write like William, he surely felt deep rooted passions in his life at some point both young or old. As a matter of fact, there are sonnets so full of passion, that they resonate with a mysterious muse, clearly someone he loved intensely.

He left us works of such passion and intense love that nowadays are simply ignored, left on the top shelf to gather dust and wasted years.

Cupid finds himself blind; his wings clipped, his quiver empty. Embrace the tempest that is what our eyes interpret. Find instead that elusive intensity and passion found all around us, in the dance, in the strings that connect us.