"A Walk Between Heaven and Earth"

Subtitle: "A Personal Journal on Writing and the Creative Process"
Author: Burghild Nina Holzer
Publication Date: 1994 (still available in paperback and as an e-book)


I studied journal writing with Nina Holzer. She was a prickly woman, but she taught me things no one else has and she wrote like an angel . Her book contains wisdom that I still return to. Today I drew a phrase from it and was moved to want to keep reading.  


Here are a few things Nina wrote about journaling. They could be applied to photography or any creative process.

• Let each journal entry come forth from the moment.
• Any creative process is also a journey into the unknown. A journal then is both the quest itself and a record of the quest.
• Creation starts in the formless.
• A journal can be anything! You hear me? A journal can be anything! Listen to me: You make the rules, you make the restrictions, you give the permissions. You can make it your confessional or your grocery list.
• The creative process is a mystical path. It is not linear. We do not enter it after we get everything else out of the way. We must know that we can enter at any time, and anywhere.
• We are wombs within wombs, and bring forth in the dark. And all that we create is our child.

I have searched online for Nina over the years, and never found her. This slim volume seems to be the only book she wrote. It's one of my treasures, full of highlighting and underlining and notes in the margin. 

Nina, wherever you are, thank you.