There was a time when women were frowned on for their ambitions… if those ambitions were for anything other than becoming a wife and a mother. Thank God, we are leaving those days behind. I am grateful for those who dedicate themselves to marriage and to motherhood — two of the most challenging roles that a human being can inhabit. I am also grateful to those women who continue to speak meaningfully into my life from myriad vocations beyond those two: as writers, artists, teachers, scientists, and more.
But ambition is not a simple thing for anyone, of either gender, in any era. And it seems particularly complicated to bring faith and ambition together.
How should we be ambitious in this age of self-promotion?
Listen to the wisdom of someone who has given this a lot of thought over a career of ambition, achievement, and discernment.
Listen to Jeanne Murray Walker — an accomplished poet, playwright, memoirist, and teacher. (Jeanne Murray Walker is one of Anne’s poetry mentors. We have the highest respect for her.) On a new podcast, you can listen to Walker go deep into discussion about ambition with another ambitious woman: one of my favorite novelists — Sara Zarr.
Listen to this episode of This Creative Life.
And then — it’s not too late — find out how you can win one of several copies of Ambition that I am giving away this month. Jeanne Murray Walker co-edited the book with another of my favorite poets and authors: Luci Shaw. Both of them contributed chapters, as did a variety of writers in The Chrysostom Society, including Eugene Peterson and Bret Lott.