2020: Things Are Looking Up

Happy New Year 2020!

Photo from our 5th annual New Year's Day hike on Saddle Mountain, for NW Wilderness

I'm starting Garth's Blog clean this year, moving all the 2019 posts to my private blog*. Even my 2019 adventure and travel blog posts and unfiltered late-night tweets are hitting the cutting room floor.

Things are looking up. I'm healing, getting stronger, breaking the chains, leaning on my faith in Jesus, practicing self-care, and moving forward to a brighter future. When you see me on a mountain or on the trail looking happy, I'm (usually) not faking it. It's genuine.

I've been learning and experimenting with tools that have been enormously helpful in dealing with depression and insomnia. Examples: Meditation (shout out to my two favorite apps, the Calm meditation app and the Christ-centered Abide meditation and prayer app) and keeping an ultra-minimalist Bullet Journal are now daily habits. Weightlifting and the outdoor events I organize for NW Wilderness also help clear my mind… As do my visits with naturopathic therapist Dr. Carol Zamarra… As well as love from family, friends, and church family… And many more good things I could enthusiastically list.

Hit me up publicly or privately if you’d like to hear more in a future blog post. It could cover additional things that have helped me, as well as offer a look at what a journey towards wellness might look like. I'm still learning, as we all are. Otherwise, it's back to blogging book reviews and travel adventures.

Though if you are hurting, just know that there is hope. I'm with you, and I'm on your side. The 2020s have the potential to be your best decade yet.

Next on Garth’s Blog:
My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2019!

*I wanted to end that on a positive note, so I buried this footnote way down here. Many of those raw “in the moment” blog posts from 2019 gave non-constructive language to my struggles with depression, insomnia, and hurt… Primarily triggered (but not caused) by two specific failures: One in a friendship, and the other regarding state-related ministry. Trying to live with being unforgiven for both of these failures is still a struggle for which I ask prayer and support. I am still prayerfully and mindfully working though these two issues. Things will continue to get better. I believe it. 🌞

Venting about the U.S. Presidential election

Photo from my Instagram Story last night:  My Jeep at the polls

America voted yesterday.  Despite Hillary Clinton winning more popular votes, Donald Trump won the electoral college... And on January 20, 2017, Trump will be inaugurated as our next President of the United States.

Photo credit: https://psmag.com/trump-vs-clinton-fighting-the-national-debt-ef127b9f5be6#.icgwa3p49

While I won't explicitly share on Garth's Blog how I voted, it's easy math: I voted for the Presidential candidate whom I thought had the best chance of stopping the LEAST MORAL/ MOST UNQUALIFIED candidate from winning (though none of the major candidates could claim much of a moral high ground).


Specifically, my conscience wouldn't allow me to vote for a man who...

...Is endorsed by the KKK, degrades women and graphically boasts about sexually assault, makes fun of disabled people, categorizes Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists, pushes for a ban on Muslims, racially stereotypes POCs and inner city residents interchangeably, threatens to abolish relationships with our international allies, disregards the validity of the democratic voting process/ peaceful transfer of Presidential power, changes his position on abortion out of political convenience, wants to deport every undocumented alien without offering any hope for a path to citizenship, cited "Eye for an eye" as a favorite Bible verse, and doesn't even read books.

Note: I have sources for each of the above.  But the list goes on and on.

Continued below, after a couple of my tweets...

Scripture was quoted by both Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in their concession speeches.

Trump's Scripture quote?  "Eye for an eye."

— Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) November 9, 2016

@kathleenRose70 Ha! Funny that the only Scripture which Trump could quote was the verse Jesus refuted.

— Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) November 9, 2016

For me personally, last night seemed like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from (or fall asleep to escape). I was shocked, discouraged, and depressed as the results of each state's votes were gradually reported live by the equally stunned cable news anchors. I wept for this country. I barely slept. And I continued to feel ill today, throughout my work shift at Delta Airlines.

Photo from my Instagram Story:  This morning's Delta breakroom was a mix of tears and cheers.

How could this have happened? My own loved ones may be direly affected by Trump's worldview and proposed policies. Woman and minorities may continue to be dismissed as second class citizens. And the United States may cut ourselves off from the nations that we should be reaching out to in cooperation for ending war, genocide, human trafficking, environmental neglect, hunger, and poverty.


Yet I do not look down upon nor judge any of my family and friends who voted differently than I did. We are all Americans.  Countless veterans have fought and died for our liberties, including choosing who will represent us in government.  And I am thankful for these freedoms.

Tonight in my youth group teaching, I challenged my students to support candidates whose lives look the most like Jesus Christ (Without even hinting about which Presidential candidate I voted for last night). I will be lifting up President-elect Trump in my prayers. I have hope for the future of this country, and for our world. And I am encouraged by the assurance that God still reigns on His throne.

Regardless of any election results, love and peace will ultimately win!

From Dubai-- Just Read: "Aloof" by Tony Kriz, and Ntl. Outdoor Leadership School's Wilderness Guide

Posted from the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates, these two book reviews will also be posted on my Goodreads page when I fly home to the States.

And of course, my current Dubai travelogue (as well as other recent travelogues and mountain climbs) are coming soon!

First up...  Aloof: Figuring Out Life With a God Who Hides, by Tony Kriz

Warner Pacific College’s author-in-residence Tony Kriz is such a cool and fascinating guy in real life, I was eager to read his latest book when I spotted it in the Kindle store last year.  “Aloof: Figuring Out Life With a God Who Hides” did not disappoint, even as it deals with spiritual disappointment as one of its themes.  Kriz wrestles with the notion of a God who does not always reveal Himself to us in tangible ways.

Doubt, skepticism, and a genuine yearning to know God permeate Kriz’s personal reflections on his life, part of the process which he refers to as “narrative spiritual formation.”  The purpose of sharing this discipline is to invite the reader to consider their own story and answer these questions:

What do I believe about God’s presence… and God’s absence?

Why does God hide from us?

Why do I hide from God?

Shallow, formulaic beliefs about prayer and how God works in this world are challenged by stories from Kriz’s own faith journey, often running counter to what he was dutifully taught about how God ought to behave and reveal Himself to seekers.  The disappointment of not feeling God tangibly enough, or at all, is a common theme of many of these stories.

Without giving away too much of the book, “Aloof” is, in a narrative sense, examining scenarios in which God may purposely be hiding Himself from us according to our seasons of life and stages of faith.  The stories range from painfully candid (It’s heartbreaking to read about the reactions of well-meaning adults in response to his perceived childhood encounter with God, and especially later, when a teenage Kriz tragically feels compelled to publically lie and share what he THINKS his church wants to hear about God’s indisputable presence after a mission trip to Ecuador)…

…To heart racingly inspirational (His harrowing incidents in the Philippines and also at the Albanian Greek embassy both left me thinking, ‘Wow, Tony… next time, lead with THAT!’).  It’s refreshing that none of his anecdotes neither assume nor dispute God’s participation in the events of his life.  There’s no magic “if this, then that” assertion of how God reveals Himself.  The tension between doubt and faith is highlighted and engaged, rather than dismissed and explained away with pat answers.

Kriz scores bonus Garth points for using the archetypal superhero’s journey as a parallel to suggest how we may benefit and grow from God’s “suspicious presence,” even when God seems to deny us any awareness of it.  On a personal note, however, one specific facet of Kriz’ superhero analogy offended me on two different levels.  But I couldn’t reasonably expect everyone’s Christology to line up neatly behind my own admittedly subjective and ever-evolving theological understandings.

Verdict:  Highly recommended for all open-minded readers.  This is a compelling, authentic read about the complexities of experience, doubt, and faith which refuses to reduce a relationship with God to simplistic formulas or comforting human relationship analogies.

One of the other books I read in January was The National Outdoor Leadership School's Wilderness Guide, by Mark Harvey.

As a hiking/expedition leader for local Pacific NW organizations myself, I was curious as to what wisdom Mark Harvey would impart to aspiring outdoor leaders.  Turns out that the advice here is very basic, but the (occasionally dated) information is presented with a good sense of humor and some amusing stories.

Outdoor skills covered in this volume include how to:  Plan expeditions (goals, routes), select equipment and clothing, set up camp, get along with others on trips, use maps and compasses (I’m still an old-school map guy, so I would’ve appreciated an updated edition covering GPS units), deal with emergencies, anticipate and prepare for weather, cook food in the backcountry, and preserve the land.

Though the majority of Harvey’s advice would be common sense for outdoor junkies like myself, I read this book from cover to cover and even jotted down a few notes into Evernote.  For a more detailed how-to guide pertaining to my more specific passion for mountaineering, check out The Mountaineer's Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.  I’m currently rereading "Freedom of the Hills" on Kindle for the second time within the past 10 months… It’s THAT helpful.

Verdict:  Recommended for outdoor newbies and relatively inexperienced outdoor enthusiasts who’d like to brush up on their backcountry skills, as well as learn the basics of leading groups into the wilderness.

Just Read: Sons of Thunder

Part 2 of 4 from last month's Belgium travelogue (link) is coming next week!

Disclosure:  The novel reviewed below was a free selection from Amazon Kindle for Samsung’s monthly book deals.  That’s why I read it.  And this review will also be featured on my Goodreads page soon.

Cotton Smith’s 1865 post-Civil War western novel, Sons of Thunder, juggles themes of faith, racial reform, redemption, self-sacrifice, racial bigotry, greed, child abuse, domestic abuse, and religious hypocrisy.  The plot involves Rule Cordell, a former Confederate soldier/outlaw (with a revisionist sense of racial tolerance, of course) who takes on a new identity as the peaceful Reverend James Rule Langford, a part-time, small town preacher.  An unscrupulous mayor, the captain of the Texas police force, and a large gang of baddies set out to intimidate and defraud the town members/churchgoers, and, you guessed it… Cordell steps up to put an end to their reign of violence and terror.

Besides being a free book, I was mainly drawn to this story by the internal religious conflicts of the protagonist.  There is a tension between Cordell’s call to be a peaceful Christ follower/preacher and his firebrand wife’s conviction that “turning the other cheek [isn’t] very effective in these turbulent times.”  His abusive father, a hypocritical former reverend himself, provides another contrast to Cordell’s struggles with faith.  And a wise, influential Comanche shaman named Moon of the self-named Noomah people adds yet ANOTHER layer to Cordell’s spiritual journey, although in a more vaguely religious sense.

“Sons of Thunder” is front loaded with both characterization and religious pondering, which are both later dispensed with as Cordell rounds up his old gang and goes after the bad guys.  The action is exciting, racism as personified by the KKK antagonists is adequately vilified, and there are a couple of surprising twists as the conclusion approaches.  With the exception of some annoyingly exaggerated Tex-Mex dialect and a hilariously ludicrous 11^th hour cameo during the climax, the story is engaging and seems to historically credible.  Overall, it’s a quick, fun read.

My rating:  3 ½ out 5 stars.

Survey SAYS.... (Pew Research study on American religion)

Until the next travel/ outdoor adventure post drops next week, I'm sharing the front page article that I contributed to our June newsletter for Aloha Church of God.  My original piece was much longer.

Last month, I also shared the condensed version of my similarly-themed book review of The None Zone: Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest.  But normally, personal and faith-oriented posts like this week's would be featured on my other blog.

This past month, a Pew Research Center study found that the number of Americans who identified themselves as Christians declined by 8% from 2007-2014. Non-Christian religious groups saw a decline as well.  The only group who saw a significant increase was the nones, those who checked “none of the above” on the survey.

Some are rushing to defend the church from potentially misleading survey results, especially from the Evangelical camp.  After all, among the respondents who claimed to be Christians, the group who labeled themselves as Evangelicals actually saw an increase from 59.8 million to 62.2 million.  Though we as the Church of God (Anderson, IN) are not Evangelical, it is admittedly encouraging to read that any segment of the Christian church is experiencing an increase in numbers.  However, it’s still difficult to ignore the overall drop in respondents affiliated with Christianity.

Many people interpret these results as a clarification, rather than a decline, of Christian identity in America.  In this interpretation, “nominals” who have in the past been Christians “in name only” are finally being upfront and honest about their lack of Christian affiliation.  In other words, the number of Christians who are genuine and committed to following Christ has more or less remained steady.

However one reads these results, our mission as Aloha Church of God remains the same.  We are called to love, serve, and be a light in our local community.   We do not exist as the church to defend the institution of religion.  We do not exist to keep our numbers up, or to put a spin on the statistics.  And we certainly don’t exist to classify spiritual seekers with convenient labels such as “nominals” and “nones.”

We simply exist to love people, just as Christ loves us.

Posts about last month's Mount Hood climbs, recent hikes, overseas trips, and family happenings are all on the way!

On the summit of Mount Hood last month

Just read: Religion & Public Life in the Pacific Northwest

You outdoor adventure and travel readers may only be interested in the closing paragraphs of this book review, but I’m including it here anyway.  It was a pretty interesting book for anyone curious about the religious breakdown of our Pacific Northwest region, and you can buy it from Amazon here or download it for Kindle.

This review will also be posted to my new Goodreads page:

This Pacific Northwest entry in the “Religion by Region” series is subtitled "The None Zone" and was edited by Patricia O’Connell Killen and Mark Silk.  It was required reading for me, and I already submitted my detailed report of this book to my Credentials Advisory Board.  In my report, I noted that this book would be very helpful for someone serving in ministry here in the Pac NW, as well as anyone interested in the history, evolution, and current trends in religious thought here in my neck of the woods.

The authors’ research stresses that people of the Pac NW are spiritually-minded but religiously unaffiliated, overwhelmingly so.  I appreciated that this book lays the groundwork for various religious and non-religious groups of the Pac NW to work together to “address the region’s pressing economic, environmental, and social issues."  And I was thrilled to find familiar references to the Church of God reformation movement, TomFest alternative music festival, Beaverton Foursquare Church, Lois Palau festivals at the Portland waterfront, Powell’s Books, Mazamas, etc..

As an outdoor adventure leader myself, one thing that surprised me was the authors’ take on what they referred to as “Northwest Nature Religion.”  Despite my Wesleyan Holiness leanings, by their definition I seem to be lumped in with nature worshipping religious groups.  I recognize our common passions: outdoor recreation and leadership, concern for the environment, a simple and sustainable lifestyle, and enhancement of faith in God while being out in nature.

Does that mean I worship the creation rather than the Creator?  Nope.  But I sure do enjoy the creation.

Feminism, faith, and backpacking: My reading of "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail," by Cheryl Strayed

Instead of flying away for another quick overseas friends visit during this latest “bachelor weekend” while the kids were away, I stayed in the U.S. to lead on-trail hikes, study for upcoming youth teachings (on a couch, not a plane seat), work at Delta, tidy up the house, and write my first public book review.

So this is what it feels like to be a grown up.

Update 3/3/15: I finally joined Goodreads this morning, and posted this review there also.  I'm not sure how often I'll use it.  My new Goodreads profile is here.  Feel free to add me (or maybe it's "follow me," as we do on Twitter?), although I have no clue how that works.

Parental advisory: The book reviewed has some strong language and may not be for everyone.  Garth's Blog is not a book review website, but I do plan to feature occasional "Just Read" reviews of books that represent a variety of genres that may interest this audience.  My thoughts on other recently read books can be found elsewhere on the web, and of course on my personal blog.

Once an avid backpacker myself (especially overseas) before having kids, I was very much looking forward to reading “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”  The idea of a vulnerable, inexperienced backpacker, incidentally a female, solo-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail recalled my feelings of concern for a friend of mine who had originally planned to backpack through the Italian Dolomites by herself a couple summers ago.

Turns out that author Cheryl Strayed, now an outspoken and much admired feminist, writes more of a personal memoir interwoven with flashbacks than a straight up wilderness narrative.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

While I was far more interested in the actual backpacking episodes, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) often merely serves as an external setting for Strayed’s struggles with her internal demons.   The book plays out like two parallel stories.  Memories of her mother passing away, the dissolving of her marriage, and the self-destructive behaviors of her past (and sometimes present) are what both drives her to escape to the Pacific Crest Trail and also what propels her forward as she backpacks north to Bridge of the Gods.

Note:  Those self-destructive behaviors are frequent and depicted in occasionally coarse detail.

Rather than telling a story of personal transformation, Strayed seems to be conveying that she is ultimately okay with the same choices which some readers would find questionable.  [3/5/15- Driving home from a Mount St. Helens climb that I led today, a couple of my friends objected that Strayed did in fact express regret for various things that happened in the past.  There's a good chance that I overlooked those passages and thus misunderstood Strayed's heart about how she feels now].

Regret is not completely absent in the writing (particularly in regards to memories of her mother and some of her missteps in preparing for and backpacking along the PCT).  However, Strayed gives the impression that, given a second chance, she would not have chosen better behaviors, i.e., being faithful to her husband, being less cavalier about her sexual encounters, being more prepared for the PCT, etc.  It’s difficult to discern whether she’s learned from many of her missteps, as opposed to merely accepting them for the sake of accepting herself.

As a follower of Christ myself, I’ll also admit that I was hoping for Strayed to progress from the point of her life where she once considered God a “ruthless bitch” into a faith journey that is more meaningful than a belief in the impersonal will of “the universe.”  I really appreciated Strayed’s candor about the doubts and skepticism that every human struggles through.  But at the same time, I was saddened to think that she experienced some of my most beloved areas of creation that I've hiked in the Northwest, and yet missed the chance to ponder what they might reveal about her Creator.

Reasons why I recommend Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Strayed’s backpacking adventure on the PCT is a wonderful example of a woman accomplishing something that is, for whatever reason, still often considered to be within male-dominated territory.  While not the strongest (but still really good) rallying cry for feminism I’ve ever read (due to what I mentioned about Strayed's dismissal of her missteps and also the fact that she did, after all, decide to bypass significant sections of the PCT trail for various reasons), it is nonetheless a compelling story that will have the reader cheering, “You go, girl!” until the final steps of her journey.

In the words of a goofy, peripheral character who crosses paths with the emerging full beast-mode backpacker Cheryl Strayed:

“I think it’s neat you do what you want.  Not enough chicks do that, if you ask me—just tell society and their expectations to go [paraphrase: take a hike].

If more women did that, we’d be better off."

Mama's got a brand new blog

En route to Ireland last weekend:  My beautiful wife Kathy is a good sport.  She lets me drag her anywhere!  Wanna hear her point of view?

Pardon the funky James Brown sacrilege of my title. This is an oh, so important announcement about something that broke loose during last week's trip to Ireland (link):

Kathy started her own blog! 

She's calling it The Hamilton 4.


Click on the link directly above, or type in this URL: www.thehamilton4.blogspot.com.

Here are the Top 5 reasons to keep up with Kathy's new blog:

5. Quality-  This one's obviously not a concern for this main site, Garth's Blog. Anyone could maintain a better blog than this one, right? Seriously, though, Kathy's got what it takes to be an excellent writer.

4. Family emphasis-  There's a reason why I only sparingly upload photos of our beloved Lena and Levi to Facebook that lack any adult context:  Kathy does such a thorough job of posting those photos herself! I highlight the milestones here on "Garth's Blog" (and feature pics of Lena and Levi in almost every post) but my focus is often more on the adventure-type stories that I would personally want to read. For almost everyone else we know, Kathy is the one who is more likely to let readers in on our everyday family life.

3. Spirituality-  The mainstream channel of "Garth's Blog" shoots mainly for lighthearted adventure and entertainment value, though I contribute more spiritually oriented (and sometimes controversial) content to my other blogs and around the web. In contrast, Kathy's inspiring faith in Christ is front and center in all of her writings.

2. The personal touch-  Kathy doesn't censor or tone down her emotions and convictions like I typically do on my main site. She tells it just like it is, with her heart on her sleeve.


And the #1 reason to follow Kathy at www.thehamilton4.blogspot.com is...

1. The amazing author-  Two words: Kathy Hamilton. Need I say more?


My Ireland travelogue from last week will be coming soon to Garth's Blog.  But today is St. Patrick's Day, and live Irish music is calling our names tonight.

No matter how many Irish bands we barge in on around town tonight, we'll try our best to not let THIS happen:

The Onion: Irish-Americans Gear Up For 'The Reinforcin' O' The Stereotypes'

From The Onion

Happy Saint Paddy's Day!!