Singer Mandy Harvey captivated America back in June when delivered a stunning performance on “America’s Got Talent” after revealing to the show’s judges and audience that she’s deaf.
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Harvey, 29, explained that she lost her hearing at age 18 due to connective tissue disorder and said she performs without her shoes on so that she can feel the tempo and the beat of the music through the floor. And her skills and talents are pretty incredible:
Need proof that you should never give up on your dream? This is @mandyharvey. #AGT https://t.co/R1yWrofTUi
— America’s Got Talent (@AGT) June 7, 2017
In her new book, “Sensing the Rhythm: Finding My Voice in a World Without Sound,” Harvey delves deeper into her personal story of losing her hearing as a teen and experiencing a faith crisis as a result that led her to feel deep despair and to initially abandon music.
Harvey explains in the book that she hit “rock bottom” one day while she was reading the Bible. At the time, she had recently lost her hearing and discovered an assignment in her Bible that she had worked on years ago while attending a Christ in Youth conference.
“One of my assignments at the conference was to think about what my biggest fear was and write down a plan for how I would deal with it if it ever happened,” Harvey explained in the audio version of her book.
And considering that she had always had problems with her ears, the years-old assignment addressed that fear before it became a reality.
“My biggest fear had always been that I would lose my hearing, so I immediately wrote out a plan,” she said. “I said I would pray a lot and I would trust God to get my through it.”
But as Harvey found herself just a few years later facing that very scenario — one that sparked a “spiritual crisis” — she said she felt anger and frustration reading her younger self’s advice about how to cope. So, she burned the piece of paper.
“I spent months alternating between anger and deep depression, not able to pray and read my Bible,” Harvey said.
Listen to her describe her spiritual crisis — and how she overcame it — below:
But then something changed after Harvey took an accidental fall down the stairs.
“One day when I fell down some stairs. It was pure climsiness on my part,” she said. “I wasn’t seriously injured, but I was hurt bad enough that a helping hand would have been nice.”
As she lay on the ground, she said she suddenly had an epiphany.
“I suddenly understood that pain is a reality in life, not just for me, but for everybody,” she said. “But it’s the response to pain that ultimately tells the story of a person’s life … everybody falls, but not everybody gets up.”
She said that she knew she had fallen spiritually, but was ready to “quit moping and get up,” adding that it was the beginning of her comeback. Find out more in “Sensing the Rhythm: Finding My Voice in a World Without Sound.”