Smitten

I couldn't tell you what it's like to fall in love or be in love or fall back out of love, but I can positively tell you what it's like to be smitten.  Can't stop thinking about it.  Can't imagine life without it.  Can't fall asleep without scrolling through those beautiful images just one last time.  Ok, maybe just once more.  But then I'm really going to turn off my bedside lamp and go to sleep.  I mean it.

It's happened.  I'm a wee bit enamored with Instagram.

I think what put me over the edge were these stunning image sets of all things wintry, both rural and urban.  For all the bleakness I associate with dark winters, Norway's snowy forests and landscapes are breathtakingly airy and bright.  It's magical, all that winter against that piercing blue sky.  And Germany, too - there are some fantastic images from Berlin.  What is it about Europe that's so attractive?  Instagram is stirring something within that I didn't mind missing until now - a reminder that I once yearned to leave everything behind to explore beauty in places far, far away from where I called home.  It's possible to fall in love...I mean, be smitten...with the lure of the unknown again.

I'm still pecking at my iPhone like a grandmother would learn how to type for the first time, but if you have an active Instagram account, I hope to find you before my infatuation wears off.  My handle is (how'd you know?) @juliaipsa {+}.

  
Images from the weekend.