From writer Emma Bolden:
Use it or lose it was one of my grandfather’s favorite expressions, one which he believed absolutely to be true. He was an incredibly talented artist, but he was a soldier, then a father to four girls, and he never had time to practice his talents. He always wondered what would have happened to his gifts had he been able to spend more time drawing. How would his skills have developed and changed? What would his drawings have looked like?
I think my grandfather was absolutely right — you use it, or you lose it. Now, though, I wonder if what you lose is your love of the thing. I wonder if this love is what’s most important, if that’s the thing that gives you the strength to risk and render, to hone your skills and develop your talents. Every loving relationship requires work, requires practice — my relationship with words was no different. When I stopped reading, I lost it — or rather, my memory of it: my love for reading, for the way it transformed and transported me, for the wonder and wisdom and beauty and terror held between two covers.
Read her full post here.