Last week I wrote about my delight over skiing for the first time in 20 years. Many readers then told me about the long-dormant skills and forsaken hobbies that they’ve rediscovered. I was struck by the confidence that comes from returning to horseback riding or ice skating or skateboarding again as an adult. Older and wiser, readers were able to dispense with their youthful hangups, to find meaning in what were once just extracurricular activities. Here are some of their stories that have stayed with me:
Kurt Neubert of San Mateo, Calif., is a Juilliard-trained former musician. He recently picked up the violin after a 28-year break. “Slowly, I started playing excerpts from pieces I used to enjoy but quickly realized that while the neuromuscular memory was there, my left hand had lost most of the agility from its former life. I decided not to give up but to embrace it as a beginner again!” he wrote, adding, “This experience has been a metaphor for this chapter of my life — to let go, step aside and let it unfold organically.”
When the daughters of Eric Ahern of Somerville, Mass., play in the park, he’s rediscovering skateboarding. “I’d rather while away some time skating and doing basic tricks than sitting on a bench,” he wrote. “I get plenty of weird looks from the other parents, but I own it. Skateboarding is a sport for misfits, and I still feel like an outsider at 45, so I embrace it.”
Morgan McEwen of Kennebunkport, Maine, took a 12-year hiatus from snowboarding. Now she’s back at it at 42. “I think it helps to have an outdoor hobby to make winter something other than a season you just try to get through,” she wrote.
Megan Brenenstuhl from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has returned to tennis. “It is both humbling (realizing the changes in my body over the 20 years) and exhilarating (so much has come back to me),” she wrote. “If there was something you once loved doing, give it a shot because the 20-years-ago you is still in there and it’s fun to find them!”
Kay Meyer of Wausau, Wis., took up the clarinet again after close to 30 years, at age 50, and is glad she did. “First, for the relationships it created with other musicians just playing for the love of music and the fun of it,” she wrote. “But also for the sense of accomplishment it gave me. I was able to play some of my favorite songs at a time in my life when I could appreciate the experience so much more than when it was just the next high school concert for parents.”
Timothy Targett of Portsmouth, N.H., has returned to fly fishing in his early 70s, after 50 years off. “The rhythm and satisfaction of casting a fly to a waiting trout actually came back quickly,” he wrote. “The pleasure of spending time in beautiful surroundings, catching some spectacular fish, and socializing with friends is very Zen for me!”
Coleen Barger of Maumelle, Ark., taught French in the 1970s and early ’80s, but then went to law school and “somehow, the French language got locked behind some cerebral walls.” She’s been using the Duolingo app to reacquaint herself with the language. “It felt a little silly at first, the lessons being so elementary, but as I progressed, voilà!” she wrote, adding, “It feels like I took a wrench to a rusted, dripping faucet, and now the water is running freely again.”
Jessica Black of St. Louis gave up figure skating as a child because of the expense of hiring a coach. She recently restarted lessons at 33. “Returning to something, as a beginner, that I was so good at as a child has been liberating,” she wrote. “I feel joy and pride that as an adult, I’m able to give myself something my younger self wanted so desperately. It’s a bit like going back in time and giving myself a hug.”
Laura Street of New Haven, Conn., is rediscovering classical piano. “I’m 25, in a quarter-life crisis, finding solace from my corporate job by retracing the contours of old Chopin pieces, learning new Rachmaninoff preludes, inventing and reinventing new practice drills to strengthen my left hand,” she wrote. “In an alternate universe, this is my career. I wonder if this universe could be mine.”
For more
How to get back into running.
On loving and leaving a musical instrument.
“There are those who do it to recapture, Rabbit Angstrom-like, the glories of athletic feats from their youth.” From 1997, boomers on bikes.
THE WEEK IN CULTURE
“Creed III,” directed by the series’ star, Michael B. Jordan, is “enjoyably old-school Hollywood,” our critic writes. Jordan and his co-star Jonathan Majors had to learn to fight harmoniously.
Tom Sizemore’s acting career, which included roles in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down,” was overshadowed by problems with substance abuse and the law. He died at 61.
A Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” will close over Labor Day weekend. Lea Michele “single-handedly reversed” the show’s flagging box-office performance, The Times’s critic writes.
Nominees at the Screen Actors Guild Awards were split over the question: Should awards do away with gender categories?
Hundreds of items that belonged to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward will go up for auction.
Attendees at Milan fashion week looked like they could have been on the runway. Follow our updates from the fall shows.
Keeping an Hermès bag pristine? Some find that a little tacky.
For the first time in Oscars history, four Asian actors received nominations in a single year.
Carnegie Hall’s coming season will feature works that explore threats to democracy.
The European Fine Art Fair opens today and is hoping to move past last year’s heist.
Penguin Random House announced new leadership after a turbulent period.
New Yorkers are enamored with Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped his enclosure and began a new life in Central Park.
THE LATEST NEWS
President Biden met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany and said they would work in “lock step” to provide military support to Ukraine.
The Russian military has made gains in Bakhmut, a focal point in the war, putting Ukrainian forces’ hold on the city in a precarious position.
Biden had a cancerous lesion removed from his chest last month.
Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer, was sentenced to life in prison in the murders of his wife and son.
Snow in Southern California has trapped people for days.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois could be the SOS candidate for Democrats worried that Biden will ultimately decline to run for re-election.
CULTURE CALENDAR
???? “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” (Tonight): Netflix is trying something new with this standup special, airing it live at 10 p.m. Eastern. (Live? On Netflix!?) This will be Rock’s first special since 2018’s “Tamborine,” also for Netflix. Is it a coincidence that this will air one week before the first Oscars ceremony to take place since Will Smith slapped Rock on live TV? Who can say?
???? “Scream VI” (Friday): The 1989 slasher film “Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” established a conceit that has been genuinely under-leveraged: Horror movie character visits the Big Apple. Here, the Munch-masked Ghostface follows Melissa Barrera (“In the Heights”) and Jenna Ortega (the titular Wednesday in Netflix’s “Wednesday”) to New York City. I’m hoping this breaks the dam: Let M3gan take Manhattan. Let Annabelle. That really tall guy from “It Follows.” The Babadook.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Lemon Spice Visiting Cake
When Dorie Greenspan created her lemon loaf cake spiked with cardamom and ginger, she called it a “visiting cake” — something easy to take to a friend’s house, or to keep on hand for when visitors stop by. But this tender cake is just as delightful when you’re not feeling social. It’s simple to whip up without a mixer, and, thanks to its shiny marmalade glaze, will stay fresh for days. If it does start to get a little stale, fear not. Dorie advises putting a few slices in the toaster, so the heat can singe the edges, revive the texture and intensify the citrus and spice flavors. I’d serve it with lemon-ginger tea, but coffee, milk or a glass of dessert wine would work just as well.
A selection of New York Times recipes is available to all readers. Please consider a Cooking subscription for full access.
REAL ESTATE
Tight quarters: See inside a 450-square-foot apartment.
What you get for $700,000: A farmhouse in East Chatham, N.Y.; a Southwestern-style home in La Quinta, Calif.; or a combined pair of 1840 rowhouses in Baltimore.
The hunt: A couple wanted a two-bedroom in Queens with a kitchen big enough for making pizza. Which home did they pick? Play our game.
Choosing cabinets?: Focus on drawers.
LIVING
Health benefits: Olive oil is linked to lower blood pressure.
Money back: Canceled flights in Europe can be an opportunity for reimbursement.
#DatingTok: On social media, bad dates make for good content.
Mindful vows: How to have a sustainable wedding.
ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER
For those who are chilly
If you’re perpetually cold or shopping for someone who is (like my mother, who has occasionally set her thermostat to 80 degrees), Wirecutter has you covered. We’ve tested cozy textiles over the better part of a decade, like L.L. Bean’s flannel sheets (the softest and toastiest pick in every year of testing since 2016) or Garnet Hill’s Plush Loft Throw. For wearable warmth around the house, try a great robe. We spent more than 100 hours researching robes and wearing 39 of them, eventually picking nine we love for softness, style, comfort and practicality. — Jackie Reeve
GAME OF THE WEEKEND
New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins, N.H.L.: The Rangers, who came close to the Stanley Cup finals last season, traded this week for the Blackhawks star and three-time champion Patrick Kane. Kane, 34, is a future Hall of Famer, though age and injuries have slowed his production. Still, as The Athletic notes, elite offensive talent will surround Kane in New York, which could help him thrive. Today’s game will be a good test: Boston has the most points in the N.H.L. right now and is on a nine-game winning streak. 1 p.m. Eastern today on ABC.
For more
“The 2022-23 Boston Bruins are the best team I’ve ever seen,” writes the Athletic N.H.L. analyst Dom Luszczyszyn.
The history of Kane’s days as America’s greatest youth hockey player, told by those who were there.
NOW TIME TO PLAY
The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were inactivate, inactive and vaccinate. Here is today’s puzzle.
Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.
Here’s today’s Wordle.
Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa
Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.