I-M-I: Just Angela

Dana Domsten Gretzinger

I know this may be strange- but here on  my journey- I’ve come to a point I knew I’d always get to- I just had no idea what would stick along the way- or how each person I met would have their own part to play- but there are a certain few- who even now, at the age of 32- I still hear in my head- gesturing toward the way of living that suits my soul best.
Certain sayings- certain songs, smells or a moment of laughter- and I remember: 
Dana Domsten Gretzinger. 
Attitude of gratitude; a woman whose soul was so on fire with praise and worship of a God she always knew to exist. 
So many times- just a teen- I’d need to hear what she had to say.
So often, feeling a peace just in her presence. 
Knowing on that stage- there was never any judgment- 
To sing with her was my heart's fulfillment.  
The vast number of hours I spent with this woman, oh! How I took it for granted-
And as I grew up and moved from that place-
Life took hold- I look back and years had unfolded- 
But I remember her faith- Her true and honest belief in God’s grace-
Her bouncing and singing- true praise on the stage.
There are some days- like today- where I awake and in my minds eye
See her face and tears pour down as I sit to contemplate- 
Questions of fate that I know the answers to- but that my earthly emotions want to argue.
Simply put- you wouldn’t know bad if you didn’t know good. 
You wouldn’t have faith in God’s unending grace- If you hadn’t experienced a fall that made you question if you’d ever again stand tall.
But Dana, she reminded me of it all.
She lived as one of the most genuinely honest souls I’ve ever been privileged to know-
In so many ways those little things that she’d say- though she’d have no way of knowing- Were instrumental to my spiritual growing.
She fed my confidence in my True Self- inspired passion within by allowing me to, alongside of her, sing- she trusted me, repeatedly, to care for her offspring-
I delighted to know that she would do anything to help my spiritual journey-
I look back and wish I had not taken for granted all of our talks- 
All of the small lessons she taught to me- that planted, like that small mustard seed- That little bit of faith that we all need- she helped by watering with truth in living.
Never afraid to say when she was struggling- never too proud to ask a crowd to pray for her- or for anyone, anything, she vowed God’s blessing on.
The saying that He only takes the good ones- it's too cliche. 
There must be some other way- to explain the lesson so many had to learn- 
Not just in her sickness, in her passing- but even still as her life remains a blessing.
I started this simply as a note to myself- to somehow find Jimmy and ask for his help-
Any writings- any recordings- as I begin my own next task- of writing my story-
I woke with the knowing that a great deal of the beginning of my growing- will include the Domsten girls- their stories- my Lighthouse Family- The truth that we never really do know what it is that God is doing.