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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.

626 Published Reflections

Reflections by Tom Bretherton

Showing 12 of 626 essays
The Weight of Winter Photo of the Day
June 21, 2014

The Weight of Winter

I remember a morning in a small town in the high country where the silence was so heavy it felt like a physical weight against my chest. I had walked down to the edge of the water just as the first light hit the pines. There was a wooden crossing, weathered and tired, holding up […]
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The Weight of Silence Photo of the Day
June 20, 2014

The Weight of Silence

I remember sitting in a courtyard in Fez, watching the way the afternoon sun hit the limestone tiles. An old man sat nearby, his prayer beads clicking softly, a rhythm that seemed to measure the very air. We didn’t speak, yet the space between us felt heavy with a kind of intentional quiet. It is […]
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The Currency of Kindness Photo of the Day
June 18, 2014

The Currency of Kindness

I remember sitting in a small tea shop in a village outside of Jaipur, watching a woman share her chapati with a stray dog. She didn’t look for praise or even offer a glance toward the other patrons; she simply broke the bread, placed it down, and went back to her work. It was a […]
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The Weight of the Receding Photo of the Day
June 13, 2014

The Weight of the Receding

I remember sitting on the wooden pylons of a pier in Cornwall, watching the water pull away from the shore as if it were being called home by the moon. My grandfather used to say that the tide doesn’t just leave; it reveals. He meant that the ocean hides the scars of the earth—the jagged […]
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The Geometry of Flight Photo of the Day
June 7, 2014

The Geometry of Flight

I remember sitting on a wooden pier in the Mekong Delta, watching a flock of egrets rise in unison. An old fisherman beside me didn’t even look up from his nets. He told me that birds don’t decide to fly; they simply agree to it. It was a strange, beautiful way to describe the collective […]
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The Rhythm of the Tide Photo of the Day
May 30, 2014

The Rhythm of the Tide

I once spent an afternoon with an old fisherman near the mouth of the river, watching him mend a net that looked more like a spider’s web than a tool for work. He told me that the water has a memory, and if you watch long enough, you start to move in time with it. […]
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The Language of Joy Photo of the Day
May 30, 2014

The Language of Joy

I remember sitting on a wooden porch in a village where I didn’t speak a word of the local tongue. I was exhausted, my boots caked in red mud, and I had spent the better part of the morning trying to navigate a map that didn’t quite match the reality of the winding mountain paths. […]
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The Quiet Visitor Photo of the Day
May 29, 2014

The Quiet Visitor

I remember sitting on a porch in the Scottish Highlands, waiting for a storm to break. For three days, nothing moved but the mist. Then, on the fourth morning, a small bird landed on the railing just inches from my coffee cup. It didn’t seem to care about the wind or the vast, grey emptiness […]
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The Art of Waiting Photo of the Day
May 27, 2014

The Art of Waiting

I once spent an entire morning sitting on a mossy stone wall in the Scottish Highlands, waiting for a red deer that never showed. My knees ached, and the damp air seeped into my coat, but there was a strange, quiet power in the stillness. When you stop chasing the world and simply let it […]
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The Quiet Observer Photo of the Day
May 26, 2014

The Quiet Observer

I remember sitting on a rusted bench in a public park in Kolkata, watching a crow pick at a discarded crust of bread. An old man sat down beside me, his hands folded over a bamboo cane. He didn’t look at me, but he pointed his chin toward the bird. He told me that if […]
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The Weight of Being Small Photo of the Day
May 13, 2014

The Weight of Being Small

I remember standing on a subway platform in Brooklyn, watching two brothers wait for the train. They couldn’t have been more than six, dressed in matching coats, their faces set in that peculiar, heavy seriousness that only children possess when they are trying to understand a world that is moving too fast. They weren’t playing. […]
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The Weight of History Photo of the Day
May 12, 2014

The Weight of History

I remember sitting on a low wooden bench in a village near the border, watching an old woman shell peas into a rusted tin bowl. Her hands were maps of a life spent entirely outdoors—knotted, stained, and moving with a rhythmic, unthinking grace. She didn’t look up when I sat down, but she shifted slightly […]
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