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Contributing Writer Storytelling & Travel Writing

Tom Bretherton

Tom Bretherton has spent the better part of two decades travelling, and the better part of that time paying attention. He has contributed to Light & Composition since 2014 with a writer's instinct for the particular — the name of a town, the timing of a conversation, the kind of detail that makes a story feel true. His Reflections are brief narratives that arrive at something universal by way of somewhere very specific.

621 Published Reflections

Reflections by Tom Bretherton

Showing 12 of 621 essays
The Quiet Between Heartbeats Photo of the Day
March 28, 2016

The Quiet Between Heartbeats

I remember sitting in a crowded train station in Delhi, the air thick with the smell of chai and the frantic rhythm of a thousand departures. Beside me, a young girl sat on a battered suitcase, her chin resting in her palm. The world was spinning around her—shouting vendors, rushing commuters, the screech of metal […]
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The Quiet After the Storm Photo of the Day
March 24, 2016

The Quiet After the Storm

I remember sitting in a small cafe in Helsinki, watching the world disappear behind a curtain of white. The snow fell so thick that the streetlights became nothing more than soft, amber ghosts. Inside, the air smelled of burnt coffee and damp wool. An old man at the corner table didn’t look at his phone […]
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The Weight of Stillness Photo of the Day
March 9, 2016

The Weight of Stillness

I remember sitting on a stone wall in the Scottish Highlands, watching a herd of sheep move across a hillside. It was so quiet that I could hear the rhythmic tearing of grass and the heavy, wet sound of their breathing. My companion, an old farmer named Ewan, didn’t say a word for nearly an […]
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The Weight of the Crossing Photo of the Day
March 7, 2016

The Weight of the Crossing

I remember a ferryman in a small village near the coast who told me that a boat is never just a vessel; it is a temporary suspension of gravity. You leave the solid earth behind, and for a few miles, you belong to the water. There is a specific silence that falls over a crowded […]
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The Rhythm of the Commute Photo of the Day
March 6, 2016

The Rhythm of the Commute

I remember sitting at a small plastic table in Hanoi, watching the evening rush begin. A woman in a conical hat pedaled past, her bicycle laden with bundles of fresh flowers, moving with a steady, rhythmic grace that seemed entirely at odds with the frantic honking of the motorbikes around her. She didn’t look left […]
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The Briefest of Altars Photo of the Day
March 5, 2016

The Briefest of Altars

I remember a kitchen in Marseille where we celebrated my sister’s thirtieth. The power had flickered out, leaving us in a heavy, humid dark. We didn’t reach for the light switch; instead, we lit a dozen mismatched candles and huddled around the table. In that small, golden circle, the rest of the world—the bills, the […]
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The Dust of Joy Photo of the Day
February 29, 2016

The Dust of Joy

I remember a morning in a small village square where the air turned thick with turmeric and indigo. An old man, his face already mapped by years of sun, stood in the center of the chaos and simply let the wind take him. He wasn’t trying to capture the moment or hold onto the color; […]
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The Weight of the Desk Photo of the Day
February 27, 2016

The Weight of the Desk

I remember sitting in my grandfather’s study in Bristol, watching the dust motes dance in the late afternoon light. He had a small brass clock on his desk that he wound every Sunday at four o’clock sharp. He told me once that the ritual wasn’t about keeping time, but about keeping pace with the world. […]
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The Currency of Sweetness Photo of the Day
February 26, 2016

The Currency of Sweetness

I remember sitting on a low stone wall in a village outside of Luang Prabang, watching two sisters share a single piece of fruit. They didn’t have much, but they had a rhythm to their exchange—a careful, deliberate passing back and forth that looked more like a ritual than a snack. It struck me then […]
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The Currency of Gold Photo of the Day
February 24, 2016

The Currency of Gold

I remember walking through a small wood in Vermont with my grandfather when I was ten. He stopped by a maple tree, its leaves turned to a brittle, burning orange, and told me that autumn is the only time the earth spends its savings all at once. He didn’t mean money, of course. He meant […]
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The Architecture of Absence Photo of the Day
February 24, 2016

The Architecture of Absence

I once sat on a bench in a train station in Marseille for three hours, watching the crowd thin out until only a single, abandoned suitcase remained near the tracks. It was a strange, heavy kind of silence that settled over the platform. We are so used to defining our lives by the people who […]
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The Weight of Small Things Photo of the Day
February 21, 2016

The Weight of Small Things

I remember sitting on a stone wall in a village outside of Perugia, waiting for a bus that was already an hour late. An old man sat nearby, peeling an orange with a pocketknife, his movements slow and deliberate. He didn’t seem bothered by the schedule or the heat. He was watching a beetle navigate […]
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