Songs of Hope and Healing - Part II

A Gift...

“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy." - Nightbirde

She seemed to appear almost out of nowhere - a tiny, 30-year-old woman with bright eyes and a warm smile - walking out onto the stage in ragged jeans and a scoop neck tee. When asked what she would be singing, she replied, “an original song that’s the story of the last year of my life.”

It turns out that the last year of her life has been spent dealing with cancer and she has a 2% chance to survive. Listen to the entire audition here:

Of all the things I loved about Nightbirde’s performance - and there were many - it was this quote that has stuck with me:

“It’s important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me." - Nightbirde

This was the reminder I needed after a week of learning that bad things were happening to those I care about. Each and every one of them is so much more than the challenges they’re facing. And each of them needs me to remember and celebrate those things - to see them as the creative, goofy, ice cream-obsessed writers of music, collectors of bad jokes and abandoned dogs that they are.

Thank you for the gift of your music and the reminder, Nightbirde. I won’t forget.

Copyright 2021 by Jena Ball. All Rights Reserved.