On Moving to America (From Chorley Citizen)

On Moving to America

12:56pm Wednesday 17th September 2008 in

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Reverend Doug Smith came over from America for a five-year stint as minister of Hillside Methodist Church, Brinscall, Chorley. He and his family recently moved back to America.

Back in May, Gill had asked me to write something on my experience as an American who had lived among you for almost five years in Brinscall.

As I was in the midst of packing and organizing my move and finishing out various church projects, I did not think I could do justice to such a request at that time.

I am not sure I can do justice to it now, but I have had some more time to think about it.

First let me say that we miss Brinscall and Chorley terribly and especially all our friends.

We miss the walks in the woods surrounding Brinscall, the bluebells in the spring, the windberries in the summer, the fabulous array of colors in the autumn and somber serenity of the winter.

We miss the market in Chorley, the warmth of all of our close friends, as well as the friendliness of the numerous casual acquaintances we made over the years.

Not a day goes by when I don’t think about what I would have been doing and who I would be seeing if I still lived in Brinscall.

It was a fantastic experience for the entire family and I know that I speak for Diane, Madelyn and Spencer on this as well.

Second, I think I need to add that our departure and my reflection on our life in England has given me a disturbing insight about life in general, which I feel compelled to share with you.

All my life I’ve heard the expression about taking time to smell the roses.

One of my favorite plays by Thornton Wilder particularly emphasizes that point as the main character Emily dies and upon her arrival in the graveyard discovers that she gets to return to observe days of her life whenever she wishes.

On the advice of the other occupants of the graveyard she picks a very ordinary day to return to. When she returns to her former life though, she gets very frustrated with her former self for not appreciating all the sights, sounds, and feelings that her busyness had crowded out. Just to hear her father’s voice again, to smell coffee, to see her mum cooking breakfast were all so underappreciated during her life.

Her despair that people just don’t appreciate life in all its richness when they have life, is my despair as well.

Now that Brinscall and Chorley are unfortunately consigned to my memory instead of my reality, I feel that in my busyness, I did miss out on so much of its richness.

Third, life in North East Texas is different in a variety of ways, but quite similar in the fundamentals.

The people are friendly as you were, the food has some similarities, perhaps with the biggest difference being the Hispanic spices rather than the Indian spices.

Actually the people here are mostly from English, Scottish background – lots of Williamsons and Fergusons and Campbells and Coppedges and they seem to pay as much attention to ancestory as people in Brinscall did.

We even have a few WWII war brides, who think they have lost their London accents, but even I could discern that southern accent.

There are plenty of wonderful woods and streams and lakes within a short distance of our village and they have blue bells in the spring, blueberries in the Summer and, I am assured, wonderful fall colours in the autumn.

While I know that someday even these experiences will relegated to being simply memories, I am determined to become more intentional about savoring my days here on earth while I have them.

Just yesterday, Spencer asked me if we could take our canoe out on the lake and instead of telling him about how many things I had to do, I said “sure”, and we all four went out for a nice picnic in our canoe on the lake.

Everybody said what a lovely time we had. Maybe I’m learning!

Doug Smith