Meghan Ward wears many hats. She’s an author, journalist, and filmmaker—and she juggles it all while raising two young, outdoorsy daughters.
Through her actions, Ward, based in Banff, Canada, has also become a role model for women hoping to navigate the responsibilities of motherhood without giving up creative pursuits. Case in point? This year alone, Ward and fellow filmmaker Trixie Pacis will release their co-produced documentary Wildflowers. This multi-year project explores the history of Canadian mountain explorer and legend Mary Schäffer Warren.
“She’s someone who reinvented herself in her 40s after she lost her husband and her parents in the same year,” Ward says. “The film explores her story and motivations as they intersect with my story as a mountain writer living over a century later. Through the film, we share themes of healing in the wilderness.”
In addition to fueling her own creativity, Ward views these types of projects as a way to inspire her daughters, too. “I think a lot of my big work in recent years, like my books and this film, have almost been created with my daughters in mind,” she says. “They’re a reminder to the next generation what it means to be stewards of this land and to leave a legacy we can be proud of.”
We chatted with Ward to learn more about her story and approach to motherhood, from cultivating her creative roots to continuing to pursue her passions while raising a family.
Creative beginnings
Creativity was a staple in Ward’s upbringing. “My mother is a musician and music teacher,” she says. “There was always music in the house.”
An adolescence of dancing and acting eventually led to Ward’s undergraduate degree in theater. “I think this played a big role in how [creativity has] manifested in the rest of my life, knowing the power these types of stories can bring into our lives,” she says.
Eventually, she dabbled into writing—a career path she largely blazed for herself. “I Googled how to become a freelance writer and learned about query letters, writing to editors, and pitching,” she recalls, noting that her success in the field, which includes bylines in Adventure Journal, Canadian Geographic, and Alpinist, didn’t happen overnight, or even several nights. “It took a long time for it to crystallize, but I’m very persistent.”
This persistence paid off in more than magazine bylines. Ward has written a handful of books, including travel guides; photography collections with her partner, Paul Zizka; children’s books; and, in 2021, her memoir Lights to Guide Me Home: An Adventure Off the Beaten Track in Life, Love, Adventure and Parenting.
“My path has been broad, but I don’t see creativity as something that forces me to use a single skillset in a single area,” she says. Her film Wildflowers, which will debut later this year, combines virtually all of Ward’s creative storytelling skills under one project. “Prior to this film, I’d also written for a couple of short films, and that required me to write with a different purpose—for something to be spoken. This taps into those theater days, and naturally, I think the documentary has brought me to this place where I’m using so many skillsets in one place.”
Enter motherhood
Some grow up knowing they want children. Increasingly, others, including many travel and adventure enthusiasts, worry about the trade-offs. What would parenthood force you to give up? Ward faced these fears head-on.
“My husband and I were both freelancers, and we were never sure about having kids,” she says, noting not only were they freelancers with flexible schedules—they were adventurers with major travel-storytelling goals. “We really loved our lifestyles; we had a lot of control, and every weekend was like a long weekend.”
Then, in 2011, they enjoyed their biggest year of adventure yet. “We’d skied in the Arctic, had several incredible climbs in the Rockies, and that fall, we set off for two months in Nepal and covered a lot of ground on hiking circuits there,” she says. “When we came home that winter, we started to have some conversations about what it would look like to have kids in that mix.”
New challenges ahead
In 2013, the pair welcomed their first daughter. “As I explained in my book, my introduction to motherhood was challenging,” she says. “We so desperately wanted to keep pursuing the things we were passionate about, but we were given one of the toughest babies I’ve ever met.”
They tried to keep their adventurous lifestyle by visiting French Polynesia and New Zealand with a baby in tow. “We did it, but it made me very ill,” she says. “It was the most sleep-deprived I’ve ever been in my life. It took us many years before we were able to finally pursue outdoor adventures with her.”
Around age four, she turned a corner. “It was like, suddenly, the world was open to us again.”
In 2018, their second daughter was born, and much to their surprise, her early years were a breeze. “We did our first backcountry trip when she was two months old,” she says. “We’ve done one every year since.”
While the first few years of motherhood were a challenge, Ward notes she gained a lot, too. “I’ve always said parenthood is like a sliding-door time concept: you don’t know what it’s like unless you walk through it, and once you walk through it, you can’t go back,” she says. “When you’re not on the other side of the sliding door, you can only look at it through the glass and make your own observations. It’s a completely different world on the inside. You experience the highest highs and the lowest lows, and you get to touch the edges of the human experience in ways you never knew you could.”
Staying creative as a mother
Women have long been pushed to set aside their careers and creative passions for the sake of the family. Increasingly, though, mothers are continuing with their careers while raising young children. This positive shift can add even more weight to a mom’s already overburdened shoulders. To avoid overdoing it, Ward says taking time for yourself and listening to your body is important.
“Many of our mothers, because of the generation they came from, put themselves last and have forgotten what it means to do something for themselves just because they deserve it—it’s like a muscle they forgot to use for so long that it’s completely atrophied,” she says. “What’s helped me [change this] is paying attention to my physical health.”
While Ward has learned to tune into and interpret when it’s time to slow down, she acknowledges she’s far from perfect. “I still make mistakes. I mean, I did it just this past month—I went too hard,” she says. “It’s a daily process, and I love this idea: ‘Will my morning self thank my evening self for doing these things?’”
Life lessons
Equally important, particularly for creatives following their own paths, is to remember your journey is yours alone. The sooner you stop comparing your route to those around you, the better. “For many years, I was obsessed with trying to make my life look like someone else’s,” she says, noting this wasn’t out of jealousy but more so trying to find other families juggling creative careers and parenthood.
“I started to look outside of my existence, thinking it would be reasonable to cobble that together from all of these disparate examples when I needed to stay on my own track,” she says. “I just wasted so much energy comparing our existence to what I saw outside of us. We all have the opportunity to be trailblazers.”
