We had a lovely Mother’s Day yesterday with my Mom and 2 of my 3 brothers. Our son & his girlfriend also came over, so there was 8 of us for a nice brunch. The flowering crabapple trees in our neighborhood were in full bloom to mark the occasion.

It is so nice to get family together. In addition to Mother’s Day, we went on a car cruise with friends on Saturday and went to a 60th Birthday party on Friday night. The best weekends are filled with family & friends events like this one.

I recently ran across this graph from a time study that looked at who people spend their time with. It’s kind of sad because as you can see from the top line, most people spend more & more time alone as they get older.

Time with your partner grows in retirement, too – but all of the other categories – including your kids – shrink to less and less.

Researchers say that our relationships are one of the key drivers of happiness in this world, so the better we are at being social and connecting with others the more satisfying life we will have.

My wife and I are social and pretty good planners. Since we got back to MN, we’ve been catching up with everyone we know and scheduling concerts, dinners, and activities with our friends & family. It’s only early May, but the weeks and months go quickly.

I have an informal “rule” that I try to book something on my calendar every single day. It can be something simple, like a lunch of happy hour, but I try to keep the social calendar busy. Today I asked a college friend about doing a Halloween activity this October!

How do you manage your social activities and relationships?

Image: (c) MrFireStation.com