“Yes, Yes, YESSSSSS!!!” That’s pretty much all I can say when I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. It’s like she has entered my brain and totally gets me. So much so that I feel like the two of us have a secret complicity and I restrain myself (very much!) from writing to her and telling her “hey, we live so close to one another…let’s do coffee (I would say wine, but by the end of her book she’s given up the good stuff)!”

This past week I was rereading her chapter for the month of June where she focuses on making time for friends. As she points out, all the happiness experts stress the importance of strengthening personal bonds. An easy way she suggests doing this is by remembering friends’ birthdays.

A simple click went off in my head. I am not the only one bad at this! I also bet that I wasn’t the only one that felt guilty / inadequate about remembering friends’ birthdays! So, I called my dear friend, S, and starting chatting with her about it.

“TOTALLY!! I always want to and then never get around to it. I feel like every mom feels the same way.” So, I asked a few more mom friends of mine about the remembering birthday dilemma – you want to, but somehow forget all the dates, have already asked, and then are embarrassed to ask again, and before you know it life is just TOO, DARN, C-R-A-Z-Y to do it! This got me thinking that Gretchen is on to something.

So, I have decided to fix my bad birthday habits and email/Facebook all my friends for their contact information & birthdays. I will enter them into an outlook calendar and look forward to having at least one contact per year with all my friends. I know this seems small, but every little thing adds up and gives meaning. As we go through life and meet wonderful people, the number of people we need to keep up with increases insanely and before you know it, you are blessed to know a lot of wonderful souls. Remembering them and showing you care goes a long way. To boot, as Gretchen notes…I look forward to the boost in energy and satisfaction and maybe even pleasure from connecting with others. If I don’t get a boost from the email, at least I’ll get one when I raise my wine glass that eve and make a toast in their honor. Meilleur voeux et santé!

Are you good at keeping up with birthdays? What do you do to acknowledge them and make a casual friend feel good about her day?

Swirl, sip, sigh #mommelier #friendship #birthdays #newyearresolutions

Photo: Happy Birthday Cake  is licensed under CCO Public Domain.

1 Comment on Birthday Resolutions

  1. Suzi
    January 22, 2016 at 12:36 pm (8 years ago)

    Right on, Mommelier! I am terrible with remembering most bdays and have an online address book where I can put in the information and mark whether or not I want to be notified. It has helped tremendously, the only thing is I started this when I thought I could remember everything, so I am still inputting all the bday information and like you said, am too embarrassed to ask a friend again, especially when we go way back and I should have it down by now. But it’s good to know that I am not the only one, so I should ask away and might even get the same question in return! Thanks again for another fabulous blog spot–keep ’em coming!

    Reply

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