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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 Rhythm of the Sidewalk Photo of the Day
October 16, 2015

The Rhythm of the Sidewalk

I remember sitting on a stoop in Hamilton Heights, watching the 145th Street crowd move like a tide. An elderly woman in a bright yellow coat stopped to check her reflection in a bus kiosk, smoothing her hair before disappearing into the subway stairs. She didn’t know I was watching, and she certainly didn’t know […]
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The Weight of Stillness Photo of the Day
October 15, 2015

The Weight of Stillness

I remember sitting by a canal in Venice at three in the morning, waiting for the water to settle. The city had finally stopped its frantic pacing, and for a few minutes, the surface of the canal became a perfect, dark glass. It’s a strange thing, how we crave that kind of silence. We spend […]
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The Weight of Waiting Photo of the Day
October 6, 2015

The Weight of Waiting

I once sat on a bench in a train station in Leeds for three hours because I had missed my connection and the next one wasn’t until dusk. At first, I was frantic, checking my watch and pacing the platform. But somewhere around the second hour, the noise of the station faded into a dull, […]
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The Weight of Small Things Photo of the Day
October 6, 2015

The Weight of Small Things

I remember sitting in a garden in Sussex, watching my grandfather try to identify a beetle crawling across his thumb. He didn’t reach for a book or a phone; he just held his hand perfectly still, as if the creature were a guest who might be offended by a sudden movement. We spent twenty minutes […]
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The First Breath of Day Photo of the Day
October 3, 2015

The First Breath of Day

I remember a morning in a small coastal village where the silence felt heavy, almost solid. I had walked down to the water’s edge before the rest of the world had decided to wake up. There was an old fisherman there, mending a net with fingers that looked like gnarled driftwood. He didn’t look up […]
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The Edge of the Day Photo of the Day
September 24, 2015

The Edge of the Day

I remember sitting on a rusted fire escape in Brooklyn with a neighbor named Elias. He was a man who measured his life in the quality of the light hitting the brickwork across the street. As the sun began to slip behind the skyline, he stopped mid-sentence, watching the sky bruise into shades of violet […]
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The Weight of the Tide Photo of the Day
September 22, 2015

The Weight of the Tide

I remember sitting on a rotting pier in a small fishing village in Cornwall, watching an old man mend his nets. He didn’t look up when I sat down, just kept his rhythm, his hands moving with a muscle memory that spanned decades. I asked him if he ever got tired of the same horizon […]
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The First Breath of Day Photo of the Day
September 19, 2015

The First Breath of Day

I remember sitting on a stone wall in a village outside of Lucca, waiting for the sun to clear the ridge. An old man named Giuseppe walked past, his boots crunching on the gravel. He stopped, tipped his cap, and said, ‘The world is always brand new for a few minutes, if you’re awake enough […]
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The Art of Stillness Photo of the Day
September 14, 2015

The Art of Stillness

I once sat on a wooden bench in a train station in Lyon, watching a woman read a paperback for nearly an hour. She didn’t look up once, even when the announcements blared or the crowds surged toward the platforms. There is a specific kind of power in that—the ability to be entirely present in […]
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The Color of Memory Photo of the Day
September 13, 2015

The Color of Memory

My grandmother kept a small, velvet-lined box in her vanity drawer. Inside, there was nothing of great monetary value—just a collection of dried lavender sprigs, a silk ribbon, and a single, faded button. She told me once that we don’t hold onto things because they are useful, but because they act as anchors. When the […]
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The Quiet After the Rain Photo of the Day
September 9, 2015

The Quiet After the Rain

I remember a garden in late spring where the rain had just stopped, leaving the air heavy and smelling of wet soil and crushed stems. My grandmother used to say that plants have a way of bracing themselves against the storm, holding their breath until the clouds break. There is a specific kind of dignity […]
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The Unsteady Mirror Photo of the Day
September 3, 2015

The Unsteady Mirror

I remember sitting by the edge of a canal in Venice, watching a gondolier push his pole into the silt. The water was never still; it was a constant, rhythmic agitation that shattered the image of the palazzos above into a thousand dancing shards. I had come looking for a perfect, glassy replica of the […]
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