Two years on from hitting the launch button on my research project ‘Springtime in Lockdown’ I want to celebrate my PhD journey to date and the data I have gathered with a poem.
When the brain stalls
When the brain stalls, the birds take over.
A family of sparrows flit and dance,
cutting across my square window of nature.
Their chatter brings me back from my muddle,
I’m connected again.
I think of the data, participants' stories of
birdsong and deep breaths and I feel sharper
and step forward toward the work again.
Thanks to Helen Kara for her creative methods workshop, a safe space where I explored different ways of presenting my work. I still can’t believe how slowly and quickly the last two years have gone. The distortion of time is real for me… and it seems for others too according to a study from the World Economic Forum.
I have learnt so much, about myself and other ways of thinking. I have met some amazing people and had the pleasure to work with them on fantastic projects (CV19 Heroes, EmoLab, Nature on Prescription). I have spoken to people about my work, terrifyingly lots of people and other times one-to-one where ideas have buzzed and fizzed.
I can still remember the energy from this time two years ago, getting the Springtime in Lockdown project approved by my supervisors and UoG ethics committee, designing the survey, learning how to build an online survey (exit lots of toys from prams), creating a brand for it, talking about it with BBC Radio Glos and via my socials, and being excited that I was able to act quickly to gather data about how people were going to nature during the first weeks of lockdown.
Now, in the final year of my PhD (crossing them all) I’m closer to the data than ever, and I feel it’s a huge privilege. The voices of my participants are bright, contradictory, interesting and interested. They alone could get me to the end.
I’m off to spend more time analysing data. I hope you enjoyed the poem.