Summer is the time when many of us find ourselves in nature — at the beach, in the mountains, in the woods—and in these locales, we tend to liberate our thoughts, letting them roam balloon-like through landscapes portending change, enjoying them when they turn spiritual or introspective. The autumn season is not yet upon us, and yet… something beckons. Summer experiences prepare us — inadvertently, even unbidden — for the opportunity to change that we’re presented with at the new year, Rosh Hashanah, that’s just around the corner.  

In the three pieces here, four women chart moments of deep personal change: the somersaulting ironies that attend dating a religious Christian; the “sleeper” integration of religious experiences from childhood and late-middle age; and a tashlich for women that takes place in conversation — since that’s where we are often most true.