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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 Hands That Remember Photo of the Day
August 23, 2014

The Hands That Remember

I remember sitting in a workshop in Kyoto, watching an old man carve wood with a knife that looked older than I was. He didn’t speak much, but he told me that every object has a memory of the person who made it. He said that when you hold something handcrafted, you aren’t just holding […]
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The Language of Embers Photo of the Day
August 23, 2014

The Language of Embers

I remember a night on a beach in Greece where the wind had finally died down, leaving the air thick with the smell of salt and cooling wood. We were sitting around a fire that had burned down to a pulse of deep, rhythmic orange. Nobody was talking. We didn’t need to. There is a […]
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The Echo of Footsteps Photo of the Day
August 20, 2014

The Echo of Footsteps

I remember a narrow passage in a city built on water where the walls seemed to lean in, whispering secrets of centuries past. I was ten, chasing a friend named Marco through the damp, salt-crusted stone corridors. We didn’t care about the history or the architecture; we only cared about the thrill of disappearing. There […]
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The Architecture of Secrets Photo of the Day
August 18, 2014

The Architecture of Secrets

I once spent an afternoon in a cramped apartment in Lisbon, watching an elderly woman water her geraniums from a wrought-iron ledge. She didn’t look down at the street, and she didn’t look at me; she was entirely occupied by the small, private ritual of keeping something alive against the backdrop of a city that […]
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When the World Goes Quiet Photo of the Day
August 12, 2014

When the World Goes Quiet

I remember standing on a ridge in the Blue Mountains just as a storm broke. The air was heavy, smelling of wet eucalyptus and cold stone, and for a few minutes, the entire valley simply vanished. It wasn’t just the rain; it was the way the mist swallowed the horizon, turning the world into a […]
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Neon Dreams of Tomorrow Photo of the Day
August 8, 2014

Neon Dreams of Tomorrow

I remember sitting on a plastic bench in a transit lounge in Kuala Lumpur, watching the clock tick toward three in the morning. The air was thick with the hum of vending machines and the quiet breathing of strangers slumped against their luggage. Everything felt suspended, like we were all waiting for a world that […]
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What the River Carries Away Photo of the Day
August 3, 2014

What the River Carries Away

In the early hours, before speech begins, the river has a voice of its own. It is a quiet murmur against the wooden hull, steady as a heartbeat. We look for grand answers to complicated questions, but the river offers only simplicity: keep moving, give way when needed, and trust the path that gravity has […]
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The Threshold of Silence Photo of the Day
August 3, 2014

The Threshold of Silence

I remember sitting in a small, damp grotto off the coast of a different island, watching the tide pull away from the shore. My guide, a man named Nguyen, didn’t say a word for nearly an hour. He just sat on a jagged piece of limestone, his hands resting on his knees, watching the water […]
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The Language of Bare Feet Photo of the Day
July 30, 2014

The Language of Bare Feet

I remember a dusty patch of dirt behind a schoolhouse in Rajasthan where the local boys played a game that seemed to have no rules and no end. They didn’t need a referee or a scoreboard; they only needed the sun to stay up long enough to finish the match. I watched them for an […]
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The Weight of a Long-Held Dream Photo of the Day
July 25, 2014

The Weight of a Long-Held Dream

I remember sitting in a dusty attic in Bristol, staring at a travel brochure pinned to the wall. I was twelve, and the blue of the water in that picture seemed impossible, a shade of teal that didn’t exist in my grey, rain-slicked world. We spend so much of our youth building these mental shrines […]
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The Weight of Gold Photo of the Day
July 24, 2014

The Weight of Gold

I remember sitting on a bench in the Jardin du Luxembourg, watching an old man try to read a newspaper while the wind fought him for every page. He wasn’t frustrated; he was patient, waiting for the gusts to settle so he could catch a sentence or two. It was October, and the trees were […]
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The Weight of a Petal Photo of the Day
July 20, 2014

The Weight of a Petal

I remember sitting in a small cafe in the 11th arrondissement, watching an elderly woman buy a single stem of something bright and unruly. She didn’t rush. She held the flower as if it were a fragile secret, turning it over in her hands before the florist wrapped it in brown paper. It struck me […]
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