Nightbirde is the stage name of Jane Kristen Marczweski. She participated in America’s Got Talent in 2021 and got the Golden buzzer from Simon. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to complete it due to health issues. She was born on December 29, 1990, and passed away from cancer on February 19, 2022. She released two EPs- ‘Lines’ in 2012 and ‘Ocean & Sky’ in 2013 and seven singles in the span of 2019 to 2021. She also wrote poems, it was compiled and released with the title ‘Poems for the Dark’. The following quotes are taken from her numerous works and also her posts on Twitter-
“Because hope is the bird that sings even when she can’t see the dawn.”
“But from way up high, Where the end of me is close, I can see a little farther than everyone else. What an extravagant earth. And what a shame that I didn’t see it until now” –Nightbirde from her book ‘Poems for the dark’
“Count me among the angry, the cynical, the offended, the hardened. But count me also among the friends of God. For I have seen Him in rare form. I have felt His exhale, laid in His shadow, squinted to read the message He wrote for me in the grout: ‘I’m sad too.'”
“Don’t you want to see what happens if you don’t give up?” -post from her Twitter account
“Even with the losses that I have taken, I will walk out with more than I started with. Each shovel full of dirt was intended to bury me, but instead, it has become the mountain that I’m standing on.”
“Forgive me if this offends you but I have a better friendship with God because I remain soft-hearted and tender toward him in a life where sometimes nothing makes sense.”
“I believe in dreams, for all our lives that originated in the imagination of God… and just think about… Don’t you want to see what happens if you don’t give up? Don’t you want to see what happens? That’s what I keep saying to myself and what I say to everyone… Don’t you want to see what happens if you don’t give up?”
“I don’t have to paint myself a different color. Happiness isn’t holier than grief. God has created space for both. We can be both. We can be all of it.”
“If we only take the miracles that taste sweet, I don’t think we’ll ever taste one. If we wait until we have the perfect song, I don’t think we’ll ever sing. Don’t miss it—it’s now. We are in the miracle, we are in the dream.“
“I’m not denying the pain of today and not denying the hope of tomorrow.”
“I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me.”
“I try not to occupy myself with questions that are too big for myself to answer. It’s a waste of time.”
“I’m pretty beat up but I still got dreams.”
“Let’s focus more on creating something beautiful for people to see, in case they do look. Because there’s a chance they never will. Just like flowers on a mountainside are still beautiful if no one sees, your work is still valuable even if no one lines up to see it”
“Life is complicated and friendship with God does not make life less complicated. But as I get older I am realizing that I would not have it any other way. Internally I sometimes wish that life would be perfect rather than just occasionally good. But I think it’s a mistake to presume that a perfect world would be better than a free world.”
“Life is a game of choose your pain – the pain of continuing or the pain of giving up. The pain of continuing has a lot more uncertainties but the pain of giving up is so much worse.” from her X account
“Love needs a place to live and grow and prove itself and that can only happen where tragedy is possible.”
“My life with God has been a complicated one and I can’t really say the complications have been entirely my fault. I think a fair assessment would be that we’ve each allowed the other to experience at least some degree of disappointment in our friendship. I’ve misunderstood him. I’m pretty sure he’s always understood me but he hasn’t been necessarily vocal about it. It’s not easy being friends with people and friendship with God is no different.”
“Really, the pain is too much to bear sometimes… it makes no sense at all.
If we can hold onto a dream for the future, sometimes that’s all we need to get through.”
“Some people will call it “blind denial” but I prefer to call it Rebellious Hope“
“Sometimes the mystery means there’s more meaning than we can even understand, and so I accept that, and I let go of the questions because it’s too heavy.”
“Still, sometimes life is too much to bear. Occasionally an extreme circumstance interjects itself into your life and your ‘live, laugh, love’ sign proves to be even more absurd than it normally does.”
“There’s so much beauty and poetry to be seen in the world if you are willing to sign off on the pain that it takes to stay awake in the middle of something that hurts so bad. That’s all this is… anybody can do it.”
“Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains but a single seed. The last pieces of my pride had to die. The last drop of my belief in the lie that I was unworthy of love. My paradigm had to crumble in order for me to find wholeness.”
“When Disappointment comes ringing the bell, invite her inside, and listen carefully. She will be a guide to reveal the secrets of your heart.”
“When Grief comes knocking, answer the door. Let her in. Let her tell you all that was lost. Let her remind you how marvelous it was. Let her paint your memories in slow motion, let her sing your story with a cello. Let her teach you gratefulness & how to pay attention”
“When you go through something that’s so devastating… makes no sense… there’s no answers, you kind of have a choice. Like, ‘Am I going to become bitter, or am I not?’ You do have a choice, you know? You do get to decide what becomes of you in a sense.”
“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.” – Jane Marczewski