When it comes to writing and creativity, one book I highly recommend is A Walk Between Heaven and Earth: A Personal Journal on Writing and the Creative Process by Burghild Nina Holzer. It’s all about finding your own voice, your own truth, that’s been building up inside you, waiting to be revealed, to yourself, to others.
I found it in a Women in Print bookstore in Vancouver, BC, Canada. This author and writing facilitator turns her book on the creative process into a journal thereby demonstrating what she is teaching. She shares personal observations about her life, the world around her, and how she encourages her students to write.
Read this book and you’ll be inspired to express yourself in writing. There is a beautiful excerpt on the back cover, edited down from the original, that reads:
Talking to paper is talking to the divine. Paper is infinitely patient. Each time you scratch on it, you trace part of yourself, and thus part of the world, and thus part of the grammar of the universe. It is a huge language, but each of us tracks his or her particular understanding of it.
Here is the full description under the journal entry 4:30 P.M. on page 55.
Talking to paper is talking to the divine. It is talking to an ear that will understand even the most difficult things. Paper is infinitely patient. It will receive small fragment after fragment of a large network you are working on, without you yourself knowing it. It will wait out decades for you to put together the first faint traces of your own code, a code you might have understood as a small child but which you are now gathering on a new level of understanding. The white paper is waiting. Each time you scratch on it, you trace part of yourself, and thus part of the world, and thus part of the grammar of the universe. It is a huge language, but each of us tracks his or her particular understanding of it.
I later posted another excerpt from her book: B. Nina Holzer’s final entry in her journal shows us how she is an innocent instrument for writing.
A recent post on the writing experience is intimately expressed in this lovely poem, “Morning Prayer,” by Deborah J. Brasket.
I’ve posted earlier entries on writing you may also find worthwhile: Writing—a poem on the writing process; INSPIRATION, a poem by Nathanael Chawkin; Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing; Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers; and Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights.
Tags: Burghild Nina Holzer, creativity, finding your voice, journaling, permission to express creativity, self-discovery, self-expression, the creative process, Writing, writing process
The Uncarved Blog 
August 20, 2014 at 10:59 am |
[…] You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
August 20, 2014 at 11:01 am |
[…] See Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, and Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights. You’ll also enjoy reading best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert–Some Thoughts On Writing. And this latest post about my son: INSPIRATION, a poem by Nathanael Chawkin. You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
August 20, 2014 at 11:03 am |
[…] Here’s a good resource of Writers on writing – an updated reading list of 70 notable meditations by Bradbury, Didion, Sontag, Hemingway & more http://j.mp/1huxG1S posted by Maria Popova @brainpicker. You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
August 20, 2014 at 11:04 am |
[…] Related posts on writing: Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, and Writing—a poem on the writing process. You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
August 20, 2014 at 11:07 am |
[…] Other inspiring posts about writing are: Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, and Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights. You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
January 23, 2018 at 12:01 am |
Lovely! Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 13, 2019 at 4:30 pm |
[…] Here are other writers I’ve enjoyed reading about and learning from: Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, including Natalie Goldberg and her writing techniques from Writing Down the Bones | Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights | Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
August 18, 2019 at 7:36 pm |
[…] Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights | Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say | Timeless advice on writing from famous authors | Writing—my early poem on the writing process […]
LikeLike
January 27, 2020 at 2:40 pm |
[…] In our efforts to fluently express ourselves, writing, primarily, is a process of self-discovery. Burghild Nina Holzer says journal writing allows us to discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
November 10, 2020 at 4:20 pm |
[…] Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights | Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say | John O’Donohue’s 4 short lines say it all for poets | The perils of praise or blame for […]
LikeLike
March 21, 2021 at 7:07 pm |
[…] You can see the complete journal entry here: Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
March 30, 2021 at 2:05 am |
[…] Read my first blog post about this wonderful book: Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. […]
LikeLike
January 9, 2022 at 5:02 pm |
[…] finally, enjoy this post: Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say, with links to more entires on writing. There is a beautiful excerpt on the back cover of her book, […]
LikeLike