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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 Geometry of Being Lost Photo of the Day
December 18, 2015

The Geometry of Being Lost

I remember sitting on a concrete step near 34th Street, watching the tide of people move in a way that felt entirely indifferent to my presence. A woman in a sharp grey suit stopped to check her watch, her face a map of minor anxieties, before vanishing into the swarm. It is a strange, hollow […]
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The Rhythm of the Concrete Photo of the Day
December 9, 2015

The Rhythm of the Concrete

I remember sitting on a rusted bench in Midtown, watching a man in a charcoal suit try to eat a bagel while navigating the tide of commuters. He wasn’t looking at the skyscrapers or the flashing billboards; he was just trying to find a rhythm that didn’t involve being shoved. That is the secret of […]
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The Weight of Water Photo of the Day
November 23, 2015

The Weight of Water

I remember standing on a ferry crossing the Puget Sound in late October, the air biting and sharp enough to make your lungs ache. Beside me, an old deckhand was coiling a rope, his hands calloused and steady despite the rolling swell. He pointed toward the harbor, where a vessel was testing its pumps, sending […]
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The Weight of the Clouds Photo of the Day
November 19, 2015

The Weight of the Clouds

I remember sitting in the middle seat of a flight over the Andes, watching a man in the window seat press his forehead against the cold glass for three hours straight. He didn’t look at his book or his screen. He just watched the earth fold and buckle beneath us, a silent, jagged spine of […]
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The Currency of a Smile Photo of the Day
November 17, 2015

The Currency of a Smile

I remember a dusty roadside in a village outside of Jaipur where I had stopped to fix a flat tire. I was frustrated, sweating through my shirt, and worried about the fading light. A group of local children gathered, not to beg, but simply to watch the spectacle of a stranger struggling with a jack. […]
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The Weight of the Tide Photo of the Day
November 13, 2015

The Weight of the Tide

I once watched a team of men in a small village in Cornwall haul a heavy wooden boat onto the shingle. They didn’t speak; they didn’t need to. It was a language of shoulders and heels digging into the wet sand, a collective heave that turned individual effort into a single, living pulse. There is […]
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The Architecture of Silence Photo of the Day
November 8, 2015

The Architecture of Silence

I remember sitting in a courtyard in Fez, watching the light retreat from the stone walls. It was that specific time of day when the heat of the afternoon finally surrenders, and the air turns a deep, bruised blue. An old man sat near me, his prayer beads clicking rhythmically, his eyes fixed on the […]
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The Weight of a Ribbon Photo of the Day
October 31, 2015

The Weight of a Ribbon

I remember my nephew’s face the day he won a local swimming heat. He was seven, his skin still smelling of chlorine and sunblock, clutching a blue ribbon as if it were a gold bar from a pirate’s chest. For a moment, the entire world narrowed down to that small piece of silk. It wasn’t […]
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The Weight of a Candle Photo of the Day
October 27, 2015

The Weight of a Candle

I remember my seventh birthday. My mother had baked a cake that leaned slightly to the left, and the kitchen was thick with the smell of burnt sugar and cheap wax. I sat there, hands folded, waiting for the signal to blow out the flame. It wasn’t about the gift or the sugar; it was […]
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Saltwater and Wood Photo of the Day
October 24, 2015

Saltwater and Wood

I remember a boatman in a small village near Krabi who spent his mornings sanding the hull of his vessel with a piece of rough pumice stone. He didn’t look up when I walked past, his hands moving with the rhythmic, hypnotic patience of a man who knows that wood and salt water are in […]
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The Weight of a Treat Photo of the Day
October 22, 2015

The Weight of a Treat

I remember standing on a street corner in Hanoi, watching two boys navigate a crowded sidewalk with a single, melting popsicle between them. They moved with the gravity of bomb disposal experts, their eyes locked on the dripping sugar, their shoulders hunched in a silent, shared pact. It wasn’t just about the ice cream; it […]
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Quiet Bloom in the Stillness Photo of the Day
October 21, 2015

Quiet Bloom in the Stillness

I remember sitting by a pond in a small village outside of Chittagong, watching an old man clear debris from the water’s edge. He moved with a deliberate, slow grace, careful not to disturb the floating leaves. When I asked him why he bothered with such a small patch of water, he pointed to a […]
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