In the movie While You Were Sleeping, Lucy Moderatz says, “[My father] would get these far-off looks in his eyes and he would say, ‘Life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan.’ I just wish I’d realized at the time, he was talking about my life.” Our lives are constantly turning out differently than we expected; just think of the old Yiddish proverb, “Man plans, and God laughs.”

We know that life does not always go as planned; but when this happens, what do we do? Sheridan Voysey’s book The Making of Us: Who We Can Become When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned explores the beauty of navigating a life far different than the one we imagined. Voysey chronicles his spiritual journey as he goes on a physical journey, in the form of a 100-mile trek along the coast of northeast England. The book is engrossing, and it is excellently written. The Making of Us makes us think of life and its meaning. Sheridan’s writing helps us reflect on our own spiritual journeys. Life is full of suffering and broken dreams, but it is also full of new paths and new adventures. True to its subtitle, the making of us shows people who they can become when life does not go as planned.