Congratulations, Liz!

As the Grateful Dead would say, “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

Growing up on the south coast of England, it never would have crossed my mind that I would end up living in the desert, let alone that I would choose to take on the citizenship of another country. And yet last week I found myself in a nondescript office out by the airport, raising my right hand and swearing allegiance to the flag of the United States and promising to uphold the constitution!

After a long process of forms and biometrics and background checks, I became a US citizen, some 25 years after first moving here. Why now? To be honest, it’s hard to explain.

There are some rather practical reasons—like tax implications and the fact that I no longer have to keep renewing my Green Card. There are some more emotional aspects—both of my children were born and raised here and don’t have any real connection to England except that it’s where their grandparents/aunts/uncles and cousins live, where Harry Potter is from, and Manchester United rule (or did!)

Some of what drove my decision was undoubtedly political—you can only watch for so long from the sidelines and not want to get more involved. 2020 was an especially hard year to watch and feel powerless. (My first phone call as an American was to find out how to get my voter registration forms!) And at the same time, the occasion was a little bittersweet. I love going back to England because that is where my family is, where my roots are, where my husband and I first met, where many friends still live. We are fortunate, though, to live in an era of easy travel, (when there isn’t a global pandemic!) and I can get on a plane in Phoenix and be in London just a few hours later.

Should I think of myself as American, now, or am I still British? (I also have a Canadian passport, but that’s a story for another day!). It’s all a bit confusing. Perhaps for now I’ll just focus on the knowledge that I’m a child of God and that living fully into that identity is what matters most. 

There’s a hymn that I love that really spoke to me last week:

This is my song, 
O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is,
Here are my hopes and dreams, 
My holy shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land
And for mine.