W. J. Hamilton

I am a follower of Jesus, the husband of one wife, the father of one child, the friend of one son-in-law and the grandfather of two grandchildren. This family has changed my life. Consequently, I count myself as one of the most blessed people in the world.

I am an Arizona native and have lived in Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Tucson. I have had the opportunity of traveling to a number of amazing places around the globe.

My entire vocational life has been informed by building friendships with people in the spirit of Jesus. By design, I do not have an organization, an agenda, a logo or a title.

I enjoy writing.

Below, I explain the 'back story' behind my 2 recent publications: The Kingdom Called Heaven and Notes to Self.

I wasn't exposed to many children’s books as a child. But, I made up for lost time by reading everything I could get my hands on with our daughter Cassia. I think I enjoyed those hours as much as she did since everything we read was new to me too. When Charlotte, our first grandchild, came along my kid’s book reading fire got rekindled. Many children’s books are visually stimulating but very few have much to ‘say’ that engages the reader's mind. I have spent my life pursuing the Kingdom of Heaven and developing ways to use simple language to communicate profound truths. My best teacher in this pursuit has been Jesus of Nazareth. He wrote the book [well his friends wrote what he said] on the Kingdom. So, instead of trying to be spiritually clever I just picked out a few of his thoughts and let my little girl imagine them into focus. It will bring me great joy if this simple book stimulates a handful of readers to consider, picture, imagine the Kingdom called Heaven.

Thoughtful inspirations and moments of clarity have come to me in spurts over my lifetime. Occasionally, I have taken the time to write them down. Over the years, my daughter, Cassia, often encouraged me to write a book. I knew I didn’t have the patience for such an endeavor so I shrugged the notion off. But, the idea of publishing my thoughts has always intrigued me. So, in 2012 I sat down with my journals and selected a number of entries that I felt were worth sharing.

Notes to Self is a compilation of those selected thoughts with photographs that help illuminate the specific geography or theme.

I am hopeful that some of my musings and/or the images touch your heart, resonate with your spirit or at least cause you to pause, take a breath, and meditate on your journey.