Monday, September 29, 2025

This is the ninety-second installment of West Wind, your weekly drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season.

Today is a very important day, but aren't they all really? There have been several important feasts over the past few days, but since I don’t post on the weekends, and I was on a camping trip so I couldn’t have done it anyway, here is the recap/roundup of what’s been going on recently!

Star of the Sea

Saturday the 27th was the feast of Our Lady Star of the Sea, which is important to me for a number of reasons. It was the name of the church where I was baptized many years ago, back in my home town of Santa Cruz, California. Surprised that I grew up in a surfer town when I can’t even stand going near the water now? So am I. Stella Maris factors into Octave of Stars as well, being Cascadia’s personal patroness, and by extension the patron of the book.

Wenceslaus

Sunday the 28th was the feast day of St. Wenceslaus, who looked out o’er the feast of Steven. I just like any excuse to sing Christmas carols a few months early, but his life was actually pretty interesting and is iconic for the history of the Czech Republic.

Michaelmas

Which brings us to today. This feast is known by many names, including St. Michael’s Day, Michaelmas, the Feast of the Archangels, and others. Technically, all of the named Archangels in the Bible are included in this feast, but since Michael is the best and coolest one, he leads the group and the feast gets his name. Which is totally fine.

In addition to representing justice, power, and mercy, he’s also the name saint of ¾^ths of our family! ZMT Books is the name of our literature brand, which represents our initials in multiple ways. My middle name is Michael, so that makes my full name one angle, and the other is Zephyr & Michelle Thomas, meaning my lovely wife and illustrator also has her name day today. And for extra bonus points, her middle name is also based on one of the angels. Boom!

And the other ¼^th of the family? My only begotten son will be celebrating his confirmation next month, and has chosen Michael as his confirmation saint. He’s got big dreams of being in the military one day, so it seemed the most appropriate choice. Please pray for him as he begins the next phase of his faith journey!

On top of all of that, it’s also National Coffee Day, which doesn’t seem to really overlap at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Maybe you can have a nice cup of coffee with your blackberry pie, which is traditional to eat on this day. According to folk wisdom, it’s the last day to eat blackberries, which isn’t really applicable around here since all of the blackberries are long gone.

That’s about all for today! Autumn has officially begun, so keep an eye on the trees to see when they start changing. And, St. Michael and all the Archangels, pray for us!