I left the celular in the taxi
Together with control
4/3/20262 min read
It was supposed to be just another international work trip.
Until… my phone decided to stay in the taxi.
In Brazil.
Of course, it “jumped” out of my pocket.
Because I would never leave it there :)
Maybe you’ve never forgotten your phone in a taxi.
But…
have you ever had the feeling that you lost control of some area of your life?
That moment when you think:
“If I don’t do it… it won’t happen.”
Because, let’s be honest…
we all have days like that.
And then, a few hours later…
I closed the taxi door.
The taxi drove away.
And my “control”… went with it.
And I was left with two very clear options:
either chase the phone or catch the flight.
I chose the flight.
Because losing the phone was already a problem.
Missing the trip would be… a much more complete experience.
And that’s how a week began…
without control.
No contacts.
No schedule.
No WhatsApp.
No comfortable feeling of:
“everything is under control.”
And then I had to do something that maybe you don’t enjoy much either:
to trust.
Trust that other people would handle things.
Trust that things would keep moving.
Trust that… I was not the only essential piece in that system.
Hard, isn’t it?
And maybe the real question is not whether we can trust.
But…
How much we try to control so we won’t have to trust.
It was curious to realize how much of my life fits inside a phone.
It is:
my planner, my camera, my bank, my map, my memory,
and sometimes… the remote control of my life!
And suddenly…
silence.
Some things were put on standby.
Others simply stopped being urgent.
And space appeared.
At first… empty.
Then… present.
I noticed the book I had been postponing.
I noticed time passing without hurry.
I noticed thoughts I hadn’t listened to in days.
Maybe you’ve felt this too…
when the noise quiets down
and something truer begins to surface.
That loud kind of control, the one that keeps talking all the time
began to give way to a quieter awareness.
Almost… contemplative.
And it made me think of the Garden.
Have you noticed how, in the Garden, time moves differently?
There are no notifications.
No constant updates.
No feeling of always being late.
And still… everything grows.
Maybe because real growth
does not happen in the noise.
It happens in presence.
And maybe that’s why, in the middle of everyday noise,
we end up confusing who we are
with everything we do.
But when the noise fades…
something truer appears.
You are not your schedule.
Not your productivity.
Not how much you get done.
You are more than that.
So much more.
Losing my phone was uncomfortable.
But it reminded me of something essential:
when control decreases…
trust finds space to grow.
And maybe you don’t need to lose your phone to experience that.
Maybe you just need to loosen your grip a little.
Breathe a little.
Trust a little more.
Because, in the end…
you were wonderfully made.
And that does not depend on how much you control,
but on who you already are.
Text: Priscila Sotana