Look Both Ways: At the Intersection of Yesterday and Tomorrow

How does one respond when the frozen past meets the fluid present? Reject and retreat or reflect and reframe? Look Both Ways is a collection of short essays that look back and forward along the path many have traveled-from the road of certainty to one of possibility. Using the metaphor of traffic signals as a frame, Anne Koch considers what shaped her thinking, what upended it, and what opportunities lie ahead as life’s journey winds on. The book is the final installment in an essay quartet A Conversation with the World. The first three volumes recount her quiet affection for ordinary life-popular mysteries, arts and crafts, and teaching. Look Both Ways focuses on transitions. How they surprise us, frustrate us, and free us for a future that builds on the past, invites the future, and celebrates the present.