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‘I come here at least once a week. Sometimes I come for the sunsets. Sometimes I bring my homework and sit under a tree. Sometimes I sit and write rambles about the river and the world around me. It helps me to relax.’
Last week, Eva took me on a walk through Christ Church Meadow and we spoke about why it has become her favourite hideaway, a small oasis, where it no longer feels like she’s in the city. It was quite grey when we went and as we were leaving, the heavens opened and we ended up taking refuge in the Tesco as rain came hammering down and lightning illuminated the sky! But talking to her made me see how such ordinary places can bring so much joy.
I’ve personally always loved going to Christ Church Meadow because of the cows, but what really stole Eva’s heart was the river:
‘When I first came here it was sunny. I hadn’t seen water in so long and I suddenly saw this whole river of pure water, a stunning pale blue, and it just awoke something in my heart.
The next day I came straight back again.
I grew up in Xiamen, which is by the sea. The sea was always a beautiful blue, I used to love it, and therefore ever since I moved away I have always been drawn to water. Blue has just always just been the background colour of my life.
I just love the sound of the water. It’s so clear and romantic.’
Watching her talk about the river was so captivating, because it was easy to see her passion and her love of the natural world.
Eva and I have a lot of memories surrounding Christ Church Meadow. There was one Saturday last year when she saw on the weather forecast that it was going to snow, so we got up ridiculously early and grabbed breakfast from Greggs, then went down to the river to see if it actually would. We waited for about an hour and it was freezing, but just as we started to walk back, the sky seemed to explode and suddenly we were in the middle of the heaviest snowfall I had ever seen in my life!
That’s when we realised that maybe we hadn’t worn enough layers. I have these vivid memories of the chaos that ensued over the next fifteen minutes when we were charging back up the road, drenched and shivering, trying to get back to college. But we were laughing. We could barely see in front of us, the snow was so heavy. I remember looking over at her and barely being able to breathe from the combination of panicked running and hysterical giggling.
Eva and I talked about that day when we were walking along the river, and we got a bit nostalgic because life was so different then. Yet that’s the best thing about the river and the meadow… even as our lives change around it, it remains a constant.
Eva said:
‘The river is the most eternal thing in this whole place, but the surroundings change every season. After one year of staying in the UK, I’ve seen so many different versions of this place. The colour of the river seems different every day to me. It’s like you can tell the mood of the river, the mood of the day, from the colour.
It actually surprised me when I came here again at the start of term. I came here for the first time in the autumn, so I felt nostalgic when I came back here and saw the chestnuts growing again, just as they did last year. So many flashbacks, I was like, ‘Oh, time really flies!’
In the year we think time is progressing forward in a linear way but actually it is more like a circle. It always returns to how it once was.’
For Eva, walking to Christ Church Meadow and down the river is a comfort, it grounds her.
But Christ Church Meadow isn’t for everyone. Today I went on another walk, this time with Finn, down the canal, and he emphasised the importance of getting out, and not just hiding away inside all day.
When he first told me he takes a walk down the canal every Sunday, I was charmed by the simple beauty of this routine. So I asked him to take me down where he usually walks and we spoke about why he’s so drawn to it. He said:
‘I like that it’s very quiet down here. And it’s nicer than Christ Church Meadow in the sense that you can walk all the way down the canal.’
I wasn’t aware when I first came up with this article that I could inadvertently start a competition between the canal walk and the river walk, but here we are.
For Finn, the canal is about escaping. It gives him a chance to take a breath and think, to process and to take some time out from the craziness. He said:
‘See, for example, if I’m know I’m gonna have to work for four hours on an essay, I’ll work for an hour or two, then when I kind of hit a snag and don’t know what else to write, I come down here for a bit just to have a think and it clears my head. It stops me from getting stressed about stuff.’
For Eva, walking down the river is about connecting with the world around her; she sometimes goes with people, or goes to enjoy wildlife. But for Finn, his walks are more about getting space from the rest of the world. He said:
‘I usually come by myself, occasionally I come with other people but mainly it’s more of a solo thing. If I go for a walk, it’s to think about things and process things by myself.’
He told me about a time where he came and sat on this small jetty for a few hours. He brought his book with him and just sat with the water below his feet, enjoying the silence.
I agree with Finn that it is important to take time out of the day to escape the crazy rush of work. It can be easy to just stay in our rooms, but whether you take a short walk down to Christ Church Meadow or down to the canal, even something as simple as that can make us feel so much better. Finn said:
‘I often come out so I don’t spend all day in my room. If I don’t have any lectures then I don’t have any reason to go out necessarily, so some days I kind of have to force myself to go out and do something. I do so because it’s healthy. It’s good to break up the time instead of just sitting in one place in one room all day.’
We are so lucky to have spaces all around us where we can go to clear our minds, to take a breath and enjoy nature. So take advantage of the beautiful natural places in Oxford, try a walk down the canal or a trip to the river in Christ Church Meadow (and go and see the cows!). It is so important that we seek beauty outside of our work, joy outside of our deadlines, peace outside the madness.
