I've been revisiting Hamlet this morning, and appreciating the deep wisdom and genius of this scene — something I couldn't have possibly understood when I read it in high school:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

To put a halt to the suffering caused by your mind, does indeed feel like death and dying. Panic, overwhelm, loss of control...but what if death was actually an invitation into the slumber of the mind — stillness, once and for all — so that you could finally dream, love, live a ridiculously whole life?

The battle so beautifully illustrated by Shakespeare here is the battle we face with each new truth we allow into our hearts. We try to filter it through our rational mind. We reject the parts that make us uncomfortable. We try to make sense of our dreams and we try to fit it perfectly with our unstable identity rather than allowing it to obliterate it so that we might rebuild on firmer foundation.

But dreams, my loves, don't work like that. Vision doesn't work like that. Love doesn't work like that. To let love in, you have to let it ALL in, even the things you perceive to be dangerous. Even the things that don't make sense.

You have to be willing to die so that you can awaken to more love.

This is the cycle:

"To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub."

Do you have a big dream you don’t even dare say out loud? To claim the vision we have for ourselves is confronting and thick work. To follow through with action is even harder. If you have something you’re ready to birth into the world, and you’re ready to let go of the suffering of critical thinking and get to work, I’d love to support you on your journey, teach you power tools to bring your dreams into reality, and guide you along the way. Reach out and let’s talk.