4+ hour, 40+ min ago (783+ words) As the days pass, planetary alignments highlight the small moments that reveal what we've outgrown. Some signs feel braver, some feel softer, and others realize they've been holding back without meaning to. There's no demand for dramatic change. This week simply offers a chance to recognize what feels true now and what no longer matches the lives we're trying to build. How will your sign fare this week? Later in the week, the Moon's opposition to Mars presses you to slow down just long enough to understand what you truly want. This isn't a setback. It's a moment to notice where your fire leads you when you stop charging ahead out of habit. You're choosing direction, not chaos, and it shows. When the Moon opposes Venus midweek, you may feel pulled between comfort and curiosity. That's not a warning. It's…...

4+ hour, 40+ min ago (783+ words) As the days pass, planetary alignments highlight the small moments that reveal what we've outgrown. Some signs feel braver, some feel softer, and others realize they've been holding back without meaning to. There's no demand for dramatic change. This week simply offers a chance to recognize what feels true now and what no longer matches the lives we're trying to build. How will your sign fare this week? Later in the week, the Moon's opposition to Mars presses you to slow down just long enough to understand what you truly want. This isn't a setback. It's a moment to notice where your fire leads you when you stop charging ahead out of habit. You're choosing direction, not chaos, and it shows. When the Moon opposes Venus midweek, you may feel pulled between comfort and curiosity. That's not a warning. It's…...

15+ hour, 19+ min ago (1044+ words) ISTANBUL " In the largest event yet of his inaugural foreign trip, Pope Leo XIV spoke to a few thousand faithful in this Muslim-majority metropolis on Saturday of unity, of "breaking down the walls of prejudice," of rejecting "darkness" in favor of "light." But it wasn't just what the new pope said " it was how he said it. In a small Mass by the standard of papal travel, he didn't preach loudly or gesticulate. He spoke in the calm, easy tone of a neighborhood parish priest. To hear Pope Leo, he makes you lean in. His predecessor, Pope Francis, could be meandering, off-the-cuff. Leo stays on script. Francis was blessed with " or suffered from, depending on whom you asked " an excess of personality. Leo is low-key. Francis was given to gestures that made headlines: washing the feet of drug addicts, praying…...

15+ hour, 19+ min ago (1044+ words) ISTANBUL " In the largest event yet of his inaugural foreign trip, Pope Leo XIV spoke to a few thousand faithful in this Muslim-majority metropolis on Saturday of unity, of "breaking down the walls of prejudice," of rejecting "darkness" in favor of "light." But it wasn't just what the new pope said " it was how he said it. In a small Mass by the standard of papal travel, he didn't preach loudly or gesticulate. He spoke in the calm, easy tone of a neighborhood parish priest. To hear Pope Leo, he makes you lean in. His predecessor, Pope Francis, could be meandering, off-the-cuff. Leo stays on script. Francis was blessed with " or suffered from, depending on whom you asked " an excess of personality. Leo is low-key. Francis was given to gestures that made headlines: washing the feet of drug addicts, praying…...

16+ hour, 15+ min ago (818+ words) Practicing daily gratitude is a habit I picked up from my spiritual mentor, Gottfried M'ller; when Louise and I took a long hike through the trails of Forest Park here in Portland on Wednesday, for example, we stopped a few times to look around at the forest and just notice what an amazing world we live in and then to say "thank you" to all the life around us. Every day, when we take our daily walk, we do this. Sometimes it's our amazement at the clouds or the geese or the river or just the fact that we're alive. I think of what my parents or my deceased brother would give for just a few minutes of what I'm experiencing and it fills me with awe and appreciation. And I'm so grateful to you for reading and sharing my…...

16+ hour, 15+ min ago (818+ words) Practicing daily gratitude is a habit I picked up from my spiritual mentor, Gottfried M'ller; when Louise and I took a long hike through the trails of Forest Park here in Portland on Wednesday, for example, we stopped a few times to look around at the forest and just notice what an amazing world we live in and then to say "thank you" to all the life around us. Every day, when we take our daily walk, we do this. Sometimes it's our amazement at the clouds or the geese or the river or just the fact that we're alive. I think of what my parents or my deceased brother would give for just a few minutes of what I'm experiencing and it fills me with awe and appreciation. And I'm so grateful to you for reading and sharing my…...

19+ hour, 24+ min ago (492+ words) Did he or didn't he? As Pope Leo XIV, on the first international trip of his papacy, visited the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul on Saturday, all eyes were on him to see if he would, like his last two predecessors, pray alongside Muslim clerics. Leo, the first pontiff from the United States, did not appear to do so " at least not visibly. Shortly after the pope departed, Asgin Musa Tunca, the mosque's muezzin, who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters that he had invited the pope to pray inside the 17th-century place of worship, which is also known as the Blue Mosque. Mr. Tunca said he had been told the pope would pray in the mosque but that Leo demurred. "That's OK," the pope said, according to Mr. Tunca. "He wanted to see the mosque," Mr. Tunca said,…...

19+ hour, 25+ min ago (542+ words) Starting today, Mercury is stationing direct in Scorpio'which will bring the ultimate relief. Yes, you read that right. We've been in Mercury retrograde since November 9, but we're nearing the end. Today, November 29, we will finally experience some cosmic clarity and comfort." "Thankfully, the emotional backwardness, serious confusion, and never-ending slowdowns that have plagued us all month are finally coming to a close as Mercury stations direct at 20" Scorpio on November 29," says Rachel Ruth Tate, certified astrologer at Casinos Analyzer. According to Tate, "Mercury direct in Scorpio's third decan clears the emotional backlog we've been avoiding'especially around intimacy, honesty, and who we trust." While this energetic shift will soothe us all, five signs in particular will finally get their shit together, according to Tate. Keep reading to figure out whether you're one of the lucky ones. Aries, it's time to face…...

21+ hour, 46+ min ago (583+ words) As a performer, one has a mission, like Coltrane, to take your solo out to talk to God." That's from Patti Smith, a great and uncategorizable artist, describing the saxophonist John Coltrane's influence on her. In my head, I hear it in Ms. Smith's South Jersey twang, the delivery blas" and slightly weary. To her, it is a self-evident statement. Classical musicians are not trained to talk to God. We are trained not to make mistakes. There are many reasons for this. Few of today's classical music performers have written music; ideally we strive to be creative in our interpretive work, but primary creation is a thing we've only studied, not experienced. That can lead to paralysis. If you don't understand how something is made, you fear you might deface it merely by engaging with it. Playing an instrument well…...

1+ day, 9+ hour ago (300+ words) Daniel Lubetzky is the founder of Kind Snacks and the nonprofit Builders Movement. When a young man recently hurled coins at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy outside a Mississippi restaurant, shouting "F" the Jews," I was reminded of a painful episode in my life " and of questions about success and the nature of hate that have been gnawing at me ever since. When I was in law school, a classmate, whom I had considered a dear friend, out of the blue started throwing pennies on the floor, sneering, "Pick up the pennies, Jew." Besides being heartbroken by the episode, I have, ever since, found it strange that some would consider picking up coins demeaning. My maternal grandfather " who fled pogroms in Lithuania and landed on the shores of northern Mexico, where he became a successful cattle rancher " taught his grandchildren…...