(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Evolution: Part Two – The Steps We Take: Living Surrender [1] ['Douglas Schonenberg', 'Chitown Kev', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine', 'Meteor Blades'] Date: 2026-08-04 On discovering that every step changes the person who takes the next one. The path continued winding through the hills as we walked. Neither of us spoke. There was no need to. We just enjoyed the scenery, we just enjoyed our lives as we lived them free from the burdens of our pasts or worries about our futures. For the first time in a very long time, I was not trying to get somewhere. I was simply enjoying where I already was. Every so often I found myself looking out toward the horizon. It stretched endlessly before us, just as it always does, just over the next hill, just out of our reach. For years, I would have found that idea frustrating, that no matter how far I traveled, I would never reach the end. Now, I simply smiled and enjoyed the journey. Mylo noticed my gaze and broke the silence. “What are you looking at?” “The horizon.” I answered. “And what do you think you will find when you reach it?” “I don’t know.” I answered. “Neither does the horizon.” I laughed. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It means the horizon is not the destination.” “It is simply the direction in front of you.” “But it is not where life happens.” He looked down at the trail beneath our feet. “Life happens here.” We walked a little farther. Then Mylo suddenly stopped. “We have walked far and have taken many steps. So tell me, what step are you standing on?” I looked down. “This one.” He nodded. “Can you stand on the step that you just took?” “No.” “Why not?” “Because I already took it.” “So where is it?” I thought for a moment. “In the memory of my journey.” He smiled. “And are you able to stand on the next step right now?” “No.” “Why not?” “Because I have not taken another step yet.” “So where is it?” “I don;t know. It does not exist yet. That step is only a possibility.” He nodded. “Exactly.” Then he pointed toward my feet. “So what is the only step that truly belongs to you?” I answered. “The one I am standing on. Which is the only one that actually exists.” We stood there quietly. Then something occurred to me. “So every step that I take will change the one that comes after it.” Mylo smiled. “Go on.” “If I take a short step then I do not move very far.” “If I take a long step, I might stumble.” “If I trip then my next step will be uncertain.” “If I stop walking then there isn’t another step.” He nodded. “Keep going.” I looked down at the trail. “Every step that I take is built upon the one before it.” “But only the one that I am standing on belongs to me.” “Exactly.” Mylo continues. “The step behind you shaped this one.” “The step that you are about to take will shape the next.” “But there’s something even more important for you to realize about each step that you are taking.” I looked at him. “This step is changing you.” I frowned. “What do you mean?” Mylo explains. “The man who takes your next step will not be exactly the same man who took this one.” “Why?” “Because each step is a new memory, a new experience, a new chance at success or failure. And depending upon how you handle that step, will determine the step that follows. Each time you take a step, you are changing, you are growing, you are evolving.” For a long moment neither of us spoke as I thought about what he just said.” Then I smiled. “You are describing Evolution.” He nodded. “Exactly.” “Evolution is not waiting for you at the end of the path. It is taking every step with you.” As we continued walking, another memory surfaced. “You know Mylo, my daughter used to compete in racewalking.” Mylo looked over. “I didn’t know that.” I continued. “I used to think that race walking was simply walking fast.” “But it isn’t.” “It’s surprisingly complicated.” “Everything matters when you Racewalk.” “Your posture.” “Your breathing.” “The position of your feet.” “The movement of your hips.” “The swing of your arms.” “The way your knees move.” “If your knee bends you receive a red card.” “If you receive too many red cards that you are disqualified.” “It doesn’t matter how fast you want to go.” “If you don’t know how to take the next step correctly you will never finish the race.” Mylo smiled. “I think that you have just explained life.” I laughed. “I was talking about racewalking.” “No.” “You were talking about Evolution.” He looked down at the trail. “You don’t control the finish line.” “You don’t control the weather.” “You don’t control the other competitors.” “You don’t even control whether someone stumbles into your lane.” “What do you control?” Mylo asks me. I smiled. “My breathing.” “My balance.” “My posture.” “My next step.” He nodded. “Exactly.” For a long moment neither of us spoke. Then I smiled. “That’s Surrender.” He smiled back. “Yes it is. Surrender is part of Evolution.” I feel something sticking into my back as we are walking. I stop and reach into my backpack to see what is sticking me. I pull out one of the masks. I turned it over in my hands. “I forgot that these were still in here.” “You stopped wearing them.” Mylo says. “You didn’t stop remembering them.” I looked at the mask. “So I will always carry them?” Mylo answered. “Each mask is one of your rings.” “Each mask is part of your story.” “They simply aren’t your face anymore.” I carefully placed the mask back into my backpack and adjusted it so it would no longer stick into my back while I carried it. Not because I needed it, because it belonged there. We continued walking. After a while I looked over at Mylo. “Can I ask you something?” “You just did.” I laughed. “When people hear the word Evolution…” “They think of dinosaurs.” “Fish growing legs.” “Monkeys becoming humans.” “They think about enormous changes that are taking place over millions of years.” Mylo nodded. “But that’s not what we are talking about now is it?” “No.” Mylo answered. He bent down and picked up an acorn. He held it in the palm of his hand. “When does this acorn become a tree?” I looked at it. “I don’t know.” “The day it sprouted?” “No.” “The day it grew its first branch?” “No.” “The day it became taller than me?” Mylo laughed. “No.” “So when?” He smiled. “It never suddenly became a tree.” “It was always becoming one.” He gently placed the acorn back in the grass. “That’s Evolution.” I thought about that. “So people aren’t evolving into someone else.” “No.” “They’re evolving into themselves.” He nodded. “More completely themselves.” I looked down the path. “So every choice changes me?” I asked. “Yes.” Mylo answered. “Every conversation.” “Every friendship.” “Every mistake.” “Every success.” “Every book you read.” “Every road you travel.” “Everything you do causes you to evolve.” “Even My haircut?” I asked. He laughed. “Even your haircut.” “Because you chose it.” “You looked in the mirror afterward.” “You saw yourself a little differently.” “You walked into the world a little differently.” “The haircut, the change in your appearance made you different than who you were before” Mylo looks at your hair. Thinks a moment and then says, “Well, some evolutions are more successful than others.” We both laughed. Then, I thought about it. The schools I attended. The books I had read. The people I had loved. The opportunities I had accepted. The opportunities I had missed. The accident. The recovery. Every single thing that I have experienced each day of my life, no matter how ordinary or how extraordinary they were, shaped me without my ever noticing. Every one had become another step. Every step had become another ring. Every ring had shaped the tree. Every experience caused me to evolve. For years I had thought Evolution meant becoming someone different. Now I understood something else. It wasn’t about becoming someone else. It was about becoming myself. One choice. One conversation. One experience. One step at a time. Each moment helped me to become who I am today. We continued walking. I thought about all the decisions that had brought me to this very moment. The schools I attended. The degree I earned. The career I chose. The woman I fell in love with. The accident that changed everything. Had any one of those steps been different; I would not be standing on this path at this moment; knowing what I know, feeling what I feel, and loving who I love. Mylo and I stop at a fork in the path we are on. The path splits to the left and the right. Both sides of the path disappear into a different part of the woods. I cannot see where the paths are leading to. I have no idea which way to go. I say to Mylo. “Which path should we take?” “If I choose the path to the left, I will never know what is on the path to the right.” “No.” Mylo answered. “You won’t. Sometimes you have to choose a path without knowing where that path will lead you.” “But then how do I know which path I should take? How do I know what choice to make?” Mylo smiles and says, “By Surrendering to the idea that you will never know if you made the right choice until, after you made it.” “Choosing a path gives it meaning. The other path does not become wrong, it just stops being yours.” That thought stayed with me. For years I had compared my life to the one I imagined I might have lived if things were different. If my mother and father were different, if my choice of career was different, if the car accident had never happened. Surrender helps me to realize that I will never know how my life would have been because I was never meant to evolve that way. That other life to the right wasn’t my path. The life I am living on the path to the left was. We walked a little farther. Then I started laughing. “What?” Mylo asks. “I was just thinking about potato chips.” Mylo looked at me with complete seriousness. “I have always found potato chips to be one of life’s greatest philosophers.” I laughed even harder. “Suppose I make plans to eat them tomorrow.” “And?” “My wife eats them today.” Mylo nodded solemnly. “There it is. That is Surrender. That is Evolution.” “You can try and influence tomorrow by planning to eat those potato chips.” “But you can’t control what will actually happen tomorrow because you will never know if someone will eat them before you.” Mylo continues. “What you control is this step. You won’t know what happens when you take the next step until you do.” We continue on the path we are walking on as we reached another hill on the trail. The horizon stretched endlessly before us. It was no closer now than it had been before. Surrender has taught me not to mind that I will never reach the horizon. I finally understood it wasn’t waiting for me. Evolution wasn’t waiting for me either. It had been simply happening to me with every step I had ever taken. The step behind me was now only a memory. The step ahead of me was only a possibility. The only step that truly belonged to me, was the one beneath my feet. I smiled. Then I lifted one foot and took another step. Not because I knew where the path would lead. But because I finally understood that every step was changing the man who would take the next one. Each step another ring began to grow. Every ring becomes another part of the tree that I was always becoming. Thank you for sitting under the tree with me and listening to my musings. If you enjoyed this musing, please consider subscribing to my Substack, Musings Under the Tree. I write about empathy, personal growth, Being S.A.F.E., politics from time to time, and whatever else wanders through my mind while sitting beneath the branches. https://musingsunderthetree.substack.com/p/welcome-to-my-tree?r=1s6ofh [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/4/800079505/community/evolution-part-two/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/