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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 Pull of Morning Photo of the Day
February 7, 2022

The Quiet Pull of Morning

I remember sitting in a small garden in Kyoto, watching a single petal catch the first sliver of sun that cleared the temple wall. An old man sat nearby, nursing a cup of tea, and he didn’t look at the sky or the architecture. He just watched that petal. He told me that everything living […]
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The Weight of Summer Photo of the Day
February 1, 2022

The Weight of Summer

I remember a creek behind my grandfather’s house in Shropshire where the water was always cold enough to make your shins ache. My cousin, Leo, used to spend hours there, turning over flat grey stones to see what lived underneath. He didn’t care about the mud staining his knees or the fact that his shirt […]
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The Velocity of Being Photo of the Day
January 28, 2022

The Velocity of Being

I remember my nephew, Leo, at six years old. He didn’t walk; he existed in a state of perpetual motion, a blur of knees and elbows that seemed to defy the gravity of the living room. I once tried to get him to sit still for a portrait near the window, thinking I could capture […]
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The Weight of a Song Photo of the Day
January 10, 2022

The Weight of a Song

I remember sitting on a rusted bench in a park in Ljubljana, waiting for a bird I had only ever heard in recordings. An old man sat down beside me, his coat smelling of damp wool and tobacco. He didn’t look at me, just stared into the canopy. After ten minutes of silence, he whispered […]
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The Quiet Between Heartbeats Photo of the Day
December 25, 2021

The Quiet Between Heartbeats

I once sat on a bench in a crowded train station in London, watching a man in a grey coat lean against a pillar. He wasn’t waiting for a train; he was simply existing in the eye of the storm. Around him, the world was a frantic blur of commuters, rolling suitcases, and the sharp, […]
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The Weight of a Whisper Photo of the Day
November 25, 2021

The Weight of a Whisper

I remember sitting in a small cafe in Cologne, watching an elderly woman trace the rim of her coffee cup with a thumb that had seen eighty years of winters. She wasn’t looking at the street or the passersby; she was entirely occupied by the texture of the ceramic. It struck me then that we […]
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The Language of Leaves Photo of the Day
November 22, 2021

The Language of Leaves

I remember sitting in my grandfather’s greenhouse in Somerset, watching him trace the veins of a fern with a trembling finger. He didn’t talk much, but he had a way of looking at a plant as if it were a long-lost friend he was finally catching up with. He told me once that if you […]
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The Weight of Quiet Photo of the Day
November 13, 2021

The Weight of Quiet

I remember sitting in a small chapel in Lucca, just as the afternoon heat began to press against the heavy wooden doors. There was a woman three rows ahead of me, her head bowed, perfectly still. She wasn’t praying in the way I expected; she seemed to be waiting, as if she were listening for […]
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The Weight of a Sunday Suit Photo of the Day
October 29, 2021

The Weight of a Sunday Suit

I once sat in a cafe in Lisbon watching an old man polish his shoes for twenty minutes. He wasn’t going anywhere important; he was just preparing for the act of existing in public. There is a quiet defiance in dressing well when the world feels like it is falling apart or standing still. It […]
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Sparks in the Dark Photo of the Day
October 19, 2021

Sparks in the Dark

I remember standing in a crowded square in Leeds, years ago, when the sky suddenly fractured into a thousand pieces of gold. It was one of those nights where the air felt thick with the smell of burnt sugar and damp wool, and the noise of the throng was so absolute it felt like a […]
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The Weight of Quiet Photo of the Day
October 13, 2021

The Weight of Quiet

I remember ducking into a small stone chapel in the backstreets of Lyon to escape a sudden, biting rain. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of cold wax and centuries of held breath. An elderly woman sat in the third row, her hands folded so tightly they looked like carved marble. She wasn’t […]
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The Unmapped Map of Childhood Photo of the Day
September 27, 2021

The Unmapped Map of Childhood

I remember my niece, Clara, at six years old. She spent an entire Tuesday afternoon in the backyard, convinced that a patch of clover was a kingdom and a rusted garden trowel was a royal scepter. She wasn’t pretending; she was simply inhabiting a version of the world that hadn’t yet been pruned by the […]
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