By Lindsay Martell — Savoring the moment does not come easily to me. I’m a consummate planner; an overthinker and I slip into cruise director mode way, way too often (cue my family rolling their eyes daily, at least once. OK, twice.)

But I’m trying to lean in to spontaneity, and embody the meaning behind one of my favorite quotes by Henry David Thoreau: “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”

Live, launch, find. I love it.

Taking this to heart, my family and I headed up to Lake Norman State Park near Troutman, a place we hadn’t visited since the early days of the pandemic. It was just as idyllic as I remembered — lake views along the Alder Trail, where we hiked a one-mile loop beneath a canopy of still-bare trees that crisscrossed over our heads.

Our pup, usually the most reluctant walker, was unusually prancy; I guess he had been craving some forest-y air as much as we did. It never takes us long to shed our suburban skin and let the quiet wash over us.

Closer to home, we hit up two new-to-us spots in Cornelius: The Peach Cobbler Factory (for sweets) and Old Town Vinyl (for spins).

At PCF, we shared a hefty Bigger Better Salted Caramel Cookie, which was just perfection on a plate, and gushed over the peach cobbler. We sat outside on a chilly, sunless day, and let the gooey goodness warm us up.

Down the street at Old Town Vinyl — an absolute gem of a music store — we picked up a few records; each one showcasing our, er, vastly disparate musical tastes. Our daughter chose Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, my husband grabbed Van Halen’s 1984 and I snagged a ‘60s collection from the $5 bin.

And now that I’ve admitted to a very Boomer taste in music, I gotta come clean about something else: I’ve vastly underutilized our local libraries for way, way too long.

Oh sure, our daughter and I frequented story time when she was a toddler, and I’m a full-on Libby app addict, but I had no idea they were also vibrant hubs for creativity and connection, with offerings like game nights to scavenger hunts to makerspaces.

I signed up for Bad Art Night (BAN) at North County Regional, despite being a massive introvert with zero fine arts skills. I quickly learned Bad Art is a bit of a misnomer; BAN is just a low-key way to create whatever you want (using things like sparkly pens to paints to scrapbooking supplies and everything in between).

A dozen or so of us spent the next hour creating, gluing, and cutting, with one lucky artist taking home a trophy at the end of the night. Spoiler alert: my funky collage with rando haiku didn’t nab the top prize. Still, it was a great night out, and the best way to flex some creative muscle.

We live, we launch, we find…more of ourselves. Every step of the way.

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Milling About is a column about life around Lake Norman, written by Lindsay Martell. The column name is a nod to life around the lake and our town’s mill history.

Lindsay Martell lives in Birkdale with her husband, daughter, and a scruffy mini mutt named Dug.