The Agony and the Ecstasy

"After Michelangelo" watercolor on paper, 8x10, Erin Rogers Pickering

I love The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone and have read it more than once. I may not be Michelangelo but I know the torture of being driven to draw and paint by an internal fire - the feelings, processes and outcomes can bring great highs and difficult lows.

And very much like motherhood.  I love my daughter more than life itself, and she is an enormous challenge. Bringing me tremendous and overwhelming joy and frustration beyond imagining. From one minute to the next we can be on different ends of the spectrum, and back again in a flash.

It is also very much like my gluten-free path. It has brought me healing, energy and vitality that I never could have dreamed of; connected me with an amazing community of people, and inspired me to paint again.  But it requires planning, vigilance, and never letting my guard down. I struggle with reactions to food that are "considered gluten-free" and occasional cross-contamination and sometimes have very tough days.

But as with my daughter that I adore, and my art that continuously calls, my food intolerance is part of my every waking, and sleeping, moment. 

And I wonder without the agony would I fully appreciate the ecstasy?