INSPIRATION | THE AUTHENTIC ECLECTIC
A Jaw-Dropping Quote to Achieve Happiness, Breathe Easy, Open Your Mind and Heart
Live by Nightbirde’s words and effectively change the world.
My fat thumbs attempted to scroll beyond the TikTok clip my daughter sent me and failed miserably.
Who knows why I opened a separate video that I wasn’t aiming for or why it was even in my feed.
Serendipity, at its finest, brought me to an America’s Got Talent (AGT) audition from 2021 that reduced me to tears near its conclusion.
Most of the show's promotional videos do that to me, but this one was much different.
I hadn’t anticipated the life-altering lesson contained within.
The video began with a young woman contestant for the AGT show. She stood on the stage and gave a cursory introduction. Scant information about her past revealed little, but a struggle was evident.
The hopeful contestant glossed over her latest cancer reports, all the while smiling.
And, without further ado, she went into her performance of a lifetime.
But, there was so much more to the story than that.
Her words after her song, if heeded by the masses, can effectively change the world.
What the Story Wasn’t
- This wasn’t just a story of a young woman’s dreams as a singer or even her inspirational lyrics.
Jane Marczewski went by Nightbirde as a singer-songwriter.
She auditioned with her eerie, throaty, beautiful echoes of hope in her original song, “It’s Okay.” You can view and enjoy it below.
As a contestant on America’s Got Talent, the stage swallowed her small frame until she began to sing with passion and authenticity, and showcased a boatload of skills.
She seemed so very small.
Her presence soon dwarfed the stage.
- It wasn’t just a story about the extraordinarily hardened judge, known as Simon Cowell, extending her the golden buzzer which assured her place as a finalist on America’s Got Talent.
- It also wasn’t just a powerful, heart-warming story of a young woman as she fought against recurring cancer, something akin to David taking on Goliath.
She had beaten the odds before; her breast cancer surfaced in 2017. She was a survivor.
In 2019 cancer returned, to a metastatic state.
Doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival and predicted she’d have three to six months to live.
And yet, she beat those odds, too, and was cancer-free by 2020.
Cancer reared its ugly head again in 2021.
On stage, she only shared that ‘just a little’ cancer had spread to her lungs, spine, and liver.
Her upbeat delivery at the audition spoke volumes of her hope and faith.
She quietly asserted, at one point, that we are more than the bad things that happen to us.
Nightbirde’s quest in the competition was cut short mid-season. Her health concerns increased and required her full attention.
She posted her journey on social media while spotlighting positivity and hope.
Sadly, the 31-year-old succumbed to her illness and passed away on February 19th of 2022.
Yes, all of these important factors matter but they do not paint the whole picture of Nightbirde.
Her Story was So Much More
Nightbirde’s story is of hope.
Moreso, her story is one of being more than a survivor.
Choosing to be happy, while surviving, fighting, and struggling is her story.
Nightbirde’s words, if heeded by the masses, can effectively change the world.
She stood on the stage after her performance and answered a few questions from the judges before they voted on her audition.
Once again, her small size contrasted in proportion to the overwhelming stage.
Her wide, clear eyes of hope and conviction came soaring through her words of explanation to Simon regarding her journey.
This is what she said:
You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore to decide to be happy. ~ Nightbirde
Feel free to read and reread, listen and relisten, and allow your soul to absorb those words.
I know I did.
Her words are clear, succinct, powerful, and inspiring.
So simple, and yet, forgotten or unrealized by so many.
Even if you didn’t know of her valiant effort to permanently eradicate her insidious cancer, her words still carry the weight of raw truth.
Happiness is indeed a choice.
Everyone has different degrees of challenges in life, and yet we all have the choice of where and how we want to focus our energies.
Life is indeed hard.
Do we wait it out or take charge of our happiness?
Jane Nightbirde Marczewski embraced happiness, breathed it, lived it, and even passed it on to the world.
And, she did so regardless of her health challenges.
After my river flow of tears, her humble words continued to warm my heart, open my mind and soul, and helped me to breathe with a deeper understanding.
You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore to decide to be happy.
I promise you, that you too will be touched to the core and forever changed as you watch her performance and hear her words of wisdom.
A family statement reads, in part, “Those who knew her enjoyed her larger-than-life personality and sense of humor. She had a witty joke for every occasion — even if the joke was on her. Her lasting legacy will be the gift of hope she communicated through music and the strength she found in Jesus.” ~ TMZ
Rest in peace, Nightbirde, and be assured your words will live on.
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Copyright © 2022 Lisa Gerard Braun. All rights reserved.