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Conversations: Brussels Sprouts

Rita-McCulloch-Cherie-Blazer
Cherie Blazer & Rita McCulloch

 Boomer Connections started with 4 Boomer ladies, each with different career backgrounds and life experiences, looking for a new project—a “Second Act”. We met each other through a local networking organization and started making …. connections.  It all started with a conversation. I bring this up because our intent with this Boomer Connections blog is just that: to start a conversation, although a much bigger one with lots more participants.

After all this time, almost 3 years working together, we have the blog up and running and we have forged a strong mutual friendship and support group. As we meet each week around our “usual” table at Panera to discuss business, the first thing we discuss is never business! Of course, we catch up. Sometimes I feel like I just need to capture some of the things we share because these discussions are the things that make up a life—This Boomers Life.  

Camille LaCognata & Marie Giammarco
Camille LaCognata & Marie Giammarco

These past few years have marked changes in our lives, good and bad. Among us, we have some similar life experiences and some very different. We bookend the Boomer Generation, with one of us born in 1946 and one in 1962—and the other two in between. Over the course of our partnership, one of us dealt with breast cancer; two of us are caring for elderly moms; three of us have kids at various ages, from teenagers to 30s; one of us has grandkids. Two of us have been divorced. One of us had a daughter and son in law move in—into a small condo, followed by two grandkids—before she decided to push them out of the nest!  These are the issues that define many Boomers lives. The successes, traumas, joys and problems, all are discussed around that table at Panera.

Let’s listen in.

Brussels Sprouts

At our recent weekly partners meeting, Camille recounted her experience of the week before. She had plans to host a birthday dinner for a friend, with a few other friends, as well as Camille’s 93- year old mother, attending.   Camille asked the guest of honor if she had any favorite food, she requested, of all things, Brussels sprouts! Camille’s reaction was swift: Yuck. Don’t like Brussels sprouts, never did, never will. Camille then went on to poll both her mother and the other two guests, with the same response: a resounding Yuck.  Camille didn’t want to be rude so she consulted the online Food Network for a Brussels sprouts recipe to make, but surreptitiously planned an extra side dish to cover. Well, as it turned out, there was a pleasant surprise all around when the sprouts ended up tasting absolutely delicious. Camille described them in a way that made us all willing to be sprout converts. Apparently, they were rolled in oil, and then kosher salt, and then roasted so that the outside was crunchy like a French fry and the inside tender and succulent. How about that?

The moral of the story is that everyone spent their entire lives thinking they didn’t like Brussels sprouts, and then lo and behold came to find that, if prepared a certain way, they are actually quite delicious. It just goes to show that anything is possible! Try something new. Don’t assume. It’s never too late, you are NEVER too old! Camille’s mom is 93 and has just discovered a love of Brussels sprouts!

The other concept of note in this discussion was rediscovering the joy of cooking. We all agreed that during our lives, especially when trying to balance career and family, cooking was much of a pain than it was a pleasure. But now…now many Boomers find they have the time to enjoy it and, like the Brussels sprouts, have found an unexpected pleasure!

What new or renewed pleasure have you discovered in your Boomer years?

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Cherie is a late bloomer Boomer, born at the tail end of the Boomer generation. She was playing with Barbies while her older sisters marched on Washington and fought for equal rights, but watched and learned. Now she is an empty nester with a whole new future to explore and share at www.BoomerConnections.com! As “Philosopher in Chief” Cherie merely wants to change the world with this blog: to encourage those of us in the midst of our “second act” to look at life with new eyes, open to a life filled with new beginnings rather than endings, and to apply all we have learned to a way of living that is more meaningful and profound. There is SO much to live for, up until the very end.