Falling in love is not as difficult as staying in love is. Your love life is not isolated from the daily trials that life bring to you. How do you go about accommodating these factors in your love life? There will be tough times and there will be the happy ones. Couples all over the world figure out their own ways to keep their love life alive and kicking. A relationship, somewhat like food, cannot prepare itself. You have to do it. And work at it every day.

Take my neighbor Eleanor’s example. They have a very simple way of keeping the romance going in their lives. She and Frank head off for a short picnic every alternate weekend. That’s their quality time together and it keeps them connected. Simple ways to reach out to your loved one always work and when your action brings about a twinkle in their eyes, that joy can hardly be paralleled. If there are romantic survival strategies unique to your love life, how about sharing some of them with us? What other things do you think Eleanor should do to jazz up her love life? What you suggest may just click for her or for other couples reading this!

Here’s a very inspiring story, folks. Joe Steffy, of Kansas, is an entrepreneur with a turnover that can be the envy of many self-made men. But that’s not the amazing part. It’s this: he is autistic and non-verbal, and also suffers from Down Syndrome. But he has made it in life with his sheer grit and determination and proved himself to be a real life hero. He doesn’t live off the Social Security disability payments.

His parents are proud of him, especially because it was physically demanding on Joe’s part to set up and run his firm Poppin’ Joe’s Kettle Korn. But they, as a family, decided to stick it out rather than complain about it all along. I was so thrilled to read his story. Occasionally, there’s a hero among ordinary folks. Real inspirational stories about human achievements inspire people more than hours of motivating talks can. You may be knowing someone who’s made it in life despite shortcomings. Feel free to share that story with me. It will definitely inspire many others.