An ecologist friend of mine writes about the importance of practice

Focal practices are “the challenging, skillful, and sometimes tedious activities required to keep something of value alive."
- Eric Higgs, Nature by Design: People, Natural Processes, and Ecological Restoration, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003

The term was coined by Albert Borgman, I believe in “The Device Paradigm,” Chap. 9 in his book Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).

The same practice is required for keeping the most important human quality alive: a compassionate and open heart.