I realised something today. My phone has become a little digital handbag.

Not the elegant kind, not silk or leather, but the everyday one that somehow ends up holding everything. A place where things gather, multiply, hide, and occasionally surprise you.

Every app is like a tiny object tucked inside.

One for walking. One for listening. One for writing. One for paying. One for remembering. One for the garden. One for the weather. One for the world.

And today, apparently, one more.

I was using my phone and decided to open Copilot. I have used it many times before, but this time it wanted me to download the app. I tried several times. The same message kept appearing.

Eventually, I gave up.

It made me think about how difficult it is to get through an ordinary day now without an app for something. They have become modern-day essentials — keys, receipts, lip balm, notebooks and memories, all squeezed into the same small space.

And every so often your phone seems to say, You need one more.

As if there is always room for one more.

But perhaps that is what my little digital handbag has become: the place where pieces of everyday life gather.

A walk.
A thought.
A conversation.
A photograph.
A moment of noticing.
A small spark of creativity.

Some things I use every day. Others disappear into a corner until I need them again.

And occasionally, when I go looking for one thing, I notice just how much I have been carrying around all along.