Letting Go - What I Learned from the Avatar

Introduction
I find that, as a writer, you get inspiration from a lot of different places - nature, experiences, and even other people that you meet.  Sometimes, though, you get inspiration from places that other people might consider weird.

With that as a preface, before I proceed forward, I want to take this time to confess something - I am a die hard Last Airbender and Legend of Korra fan.  Like seriously.  I own and wear t-shirts with logos from the series and all of the seasons are ranked high on my "to buy" list.   I've had multiple conversations with different people about what type of bender they think they would be and I'm pretty sure I would be an earth or an air bender.  Not that I need to, but I justify my Avatar fandom by pointing out that we all get our little nerdy things that we like (I just happen to have a lot of them, one of them being this series).

Korra's Experience 
Now that I have that off my chest, this post was inspired by a scene from one of the latest episodes (yes, I follow it closely).  Before we get too far I want to point out that there is a SPOILER ALERT ahead for those of you who haven't seen the episode but still plan on watching it (For those who want to watch it, you can find it HERE).

At this point in the series, Korra is experiencing some problems with her fighting skills and is having periodic, traumatic flashbacks to the events of last season.  She is frustrated because she just can't seem to understand why her fighting is just not up to parr with where it used to be, so she goes on soul-searching journey in various places around the world, until she finally finds herself being led to a swamp by a little puppy (who turns out to be a spirit), where she finds Toph (one of the main characters from The Last Airbender).

After training with Toph for a short amount of time and getting beat down multiple times.  In Korra's frustration, Toph points out that, despite her daughter, Suyin's, efforts to remove the metallic poison that had debilitated Korra (leaving her in a wheelchair at the end of the last season), some of the poison still remained in her body and was weighing her down.  Korra, upon realizing this, is pretty relieved to find out that the problem seems to be something that can be fixed.  She just needs to have Toph bend the metallic poison out of her body.

The Realization
Later in the episode, we see Korra laying down and Toph attempting to remove the remaining poison.  As soon as she starts the process, Korra winces in pain, and Toph tells her to relax (in a Toph sort of way).  Upon trying it again, Korra cringes at Toph's attempt to remove the poison.

For some reason, Korra just can't seem to relax enough, and Toph gets a bit annoyed and tells Korra that she needs to be the one to remove the poison herself.  Korra can't understand why she can't relax enough to get the poison out when Toph points out that maybe it's because she doesn't want the poison out so she doesn't have to go back out and be the avatar.  In the end, what it came down to was, Korra was scared.

I don't know why, but Korra's whole experience struck a chord with me.  I know the Legend of Korra is just a cartoon, but you just can't help but smile at how profound some of these scenes are.  Korra needed to go back to being the avatar, but being the avatar might mean getting hurt again, and maybe even dying.  It could mean more traumatic experiences, more failures, and certainly it meant facing an unknown future.

The Lesson
How many times do we find ourselves running away from things that we need to do?  Holding on to past experiences, good or bad, because we're scared that putting ourselves out there will leave us in a vulnerable position?  We're afraid of failing or getting hurt physically, mentally, or emotionally.

In real life, this fear could translate into any number of circumstances - dating (which I find is a big one for those in the twenty-something age range), learning something new, deciding move to a new place, making friends, or even having an important chat with a loved one (parents, siblings, or friend).  In general, putting yourself out there.

As we learned from Korra, if we live our lives like that, we will be, figuratively, weighed down and unable to accomplish what we are truly capable of doing.  It's true, life does come with some ups and downs.  It comes with hard experiences and failures, but if we let failure, or more importantly the fear of failure hold us back, we will miss out on so many lessons and blessings.

Elder F. Enzio Busche in his talk, Unleashing the Dormant Spirit said,

Avoid any fear like your worst enemy, but magnify your fear about the consequences of sin. 

I love that line.  We need to avoid any fear, except the fear of doing wrong.  Fear really is a terrible thing. It stops us from being able to move forward.  It stops us from realizing our true potential or being able to do the things that God needs us to do.  It's true, from time to time, we will have moments when we are scared because of experiences we've had in the past.  And sometimes, we will let the fear get the best of us, I know I have, but we can't let it hold us back.  We need to let go.

Conclusion
The other day I saw the conclusion of Korra's trouble with the metallic poison.

SPOILER ALERT: Korra is finally able to bend the poison out of her system, but only after she lets go of the painful memories that she was holding on to.  It almost brought me to tears, not because the heroine was finally able to let go and become her old self, but because I know what that feels like.

We all have things that we hold on to, much to our detriment, but what a wonderful feeling it is to be able to let those things go.  Many of those things take time and sustained effort, like sins or bad habits, but when we finally "get the poison out of our system" we are so
much better because of it.

I sincerely hope that we can all have the experience, and frequently, of letting go of the things that are holding us back and have the chance to realize our potential.  I know that through the Atonement and grace we can have the strength to let even the hardest things go.  In any case, the memories might remain, but the weight will not.  How grateful I am for that realization and that the love of God can help us get through those hard times.  We truly are blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who were willing to help make all of the letting go and the change experiences possible for us.  We're even luckier if we have witnessed those miracles in our own lives or the lives of those we love.  I hope that if you haven't let go of mistakes or fears, please consider doing so, you will be so much better off.

- Morgan