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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 Silence Photo of the Day
September 24, 2021

The Geometry of Silence

I once spent three days in a remote stretch of the high plains where the wind didn’t howl, but hummed a low, constant note against the scrub brush. I was traveling with a guide named Elias who insisted that we stop walking every time the sun hit the meridian. He would sit on his heels, […]
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The Weight of Silence Photo of the Day
September 12, 2021

The Weight of Silence

I remember sitting in a small stone chapel in the hills outside of Siena, waiting for a storm to pass. The air inside was thick, smelling of damp earth and centuries of extinguished candles. There was an old man in the corner, his rosary beads clicking softly against the wood of the pew. He wasn’t […]
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The Weight of the Mist Photo of the Day
August 31, 2021

The Weight of the Mist

I remember sitting in a small tea shop in McLeod Ganj, watching the clouds roll down the mountainside until the street outside simply ceased to exist. A man sat at the table next to me, his hands wrapped around a glass of steaming chai, staring into the white void. He didn’t seem bothered by the […]
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The Weight of a Season Photo of the Day
July 25, 2021

The Weight of a Season

I remember sitting on the edge of a wooden dock in late August, watching my grandfather try to mend a frayed rope. He didn’t say much, just focused on the way the fibers had begun to unravel, his hands moving with a slow, practiced patience. He told me then that we spend our whole lives […]
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The Grace of Letting Go Photo of the Day
July 24, 2021

The Grace of Letting Go

My grandmother kept a vase of lilies on her kitchen table that she refused to throw away, even as the petals curled and darkened into the color of dried tea leaves. She told me that a flower is most honest when it stops trying to be perfect. When it is young and upright, it is […]
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The Currency of Laughter Photo of the Day
May 29, 2021

The Currency of Laughter

I remember a morning in a small village outside of Luang Prabang where the humidity clung to everything like a damp wool blanket. I was sitting on a plastic stool, nursing a lukewarm tea, when a young girl ran past, tripped over her own feet, and tumbled into the red dust. She didn’t cry. Instead, […]
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The Weight of the Span Photo of the Day
May 18, 2021

The Weight of the Span

I remember standing on the pier at Brighton when the wind was so fierce it felt like a physical hand pushing against my chest. There was a woman standing near the railing, staring out at the grey churn of the English Channel. She wasn’t looking at the horizon; she was looking at nothing in particular, […]
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The Weight of Shared Silence Photo of the Day
April 24, 2021

The Weight of Shared Silence

I remember sitting on a porch in a small village in the Peloponnese, watching an old couple peel potatoes for lunch. They didn’t speak for nearly an hour. There was no need for the frantic, performative chatter we use to fill the gaps in our modern lives. They moved with a synchronized rhythm, a language […]
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The Weight of the Crossing Photo of the Day
March 3, 2021

The Weight of the Crossing

I remember a bridge in a small town in Wales where an old man named Elias would stand every Tuesday at dusk. He didn’t fish, and he didn’t watch the traffic. He simply leaned against the iron railing, his hands tucked deep into his coat pockets, staring down at the dark water moving beneath the […]
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The Weight of a Smile Photo of the Day
February 16, 2021

The Weight of a Smile

I remember sitting in a small tea shop in a mountain village, the air thin and smelling of woodsmoke. An old man sat across from me, his face a map of deep lines earned from years of high-altitude sun. We didn’t share a language, so we just sat in the quiet, drinking butter tea. Every […]
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The Steam of Home Photo of the Day
February 14, 2021

The Steam of Home

My grandmother used to say that you can tell the health of a house by the smell of its kitchen on a Tuesday afternoon. She wasn’t talking about fancy ingredients or complex techniques. She meant the kind of cooking that requires patience—the slow simmer of bones, the sharp snap of fresh herbs, the way the […]
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The Weight of Stone Photo of the Day
February 10, 2021

The Weight of Stone

I remember a set of stairs in a village near the border where the stone was worn smooth by three generations of restless feet. An old woman sat there one Tuesday, shelling peas into a tin bowl, her hands moving with a rhythm that had nothing to do with the ticking of a clock. She […]
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