Morning Waves

A Cinematic Meditation featuring Amit Inderdeo

Good morning everyone,

A few months ago, an artist named Amit Inderdeo reached out to see if I would be interested in collaborating with him on a series of cinematic meditations. Amit has been writing peaceful music for his newborn baby, and he wanted to share it with the rest of the world, especially in these very dark, chaotic times. He was looking for some aerial footage of landscapes to accompany his new music featuring Indian instruments and vocals. And after I heard the first track, I was hooked.

Our first creative offering is a work titled “Morning Waves”, a mesmerizing piece featuring Hidayat Khan on sitar & vocals along with Tejas Vinchurkar on bansuri (Indian flute). As Amit describes, this song is “a soothing fusion of ocean sounds, the strum of the Sitar, and the ethereal melodies of the Bansuri, allowing the composition to transport you to a place of inner peace and relaxation, making it the perfect soundtrack for your mindful morning rituals.”

For this collaboration, instead of making the typical music video with multiple scenes edited together, I decided to take a simpler, minimalistic approach and to go with one single continuous shot from the Oregon Coast. One of my favorite filming techniques with drones is to capture really long, slow, steady shots that continually unfold and reveal a stunning landscape.

To me, this is a practice of presence. Of being present. And of focus. It’s an invitation to center oneself, as if you are standing on a shore staring at the waves, listening to the sound of the ocean, soaking in the hypnotic beauty of it all, without saying a word. These are the moments that center me with calmness and “high beauty", as Tolkien described in The Lord of the Rings.

“In the end, the Shadow is only a small & passing thing: there is light & high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” (The Fellowship of the Ring)

There is beauty… and then there is “high beauty”, that which is created by the Divine. And as artist Makoto Fujimura once recently said, “Culture Care is to see light and beauty beyond the Shadows and create into that possibility.”

To be honest, as I’m writing this to you, my heart is very heavy. Yeah, it’s been a hard year for me, as you read in the previous newsletter. But I know I am not alone in my suffering. It seems like everyone I know is going through a season of extra hardship, pain, heartbreak, sickness, stress, trauma, or anxiety. Add on top of this the reality that it feels like the world is about to spin off its axis. Wars and massacres. Another mass shooting. Politics and scandals. Religious trauma and divisiveness. And everyone is just… exhausted. And angry. And confused. And at each other’s throats. Sometimes over very important stuff… but also over very stupid crap, too.

Y’all… here’s the deal. I don’t have the answers. Sure, I have ideas and opinions and convictions… but I just… I don’t know what to say anymore. And saying anything about any of it online feels like a pointless scream into the noisy abyss. But I do believe that in the end, “beauty will save the world.” (Dostoevsky) So that’s my focus these days: creating and sharing art by capturing the “high beauty” that is quietly above us and around us at all times, seemingly hidden, not begging for our attention, but longing to be found and enjoyed. And I’m so honored to partner with fellow artists like Amit to do so.

I hope this creative offering serves you in a way that brings a moment of calm, peace, and loving kindness to your world today. So please, I invite you to pause and to fly with me over the insanely gorgeous coastline of Oregon while enjoying the beauty of Amit’s work as the sound of ocean waves wash over you. (FYI: You can listen to Amit’s music on all streaming platforms.)

And guess what… there’s much more of this to come. And soon. We’re just getting started. =)

Peace be with you,

Stephen Proctor

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P.S. Thank you to all who reached out and commented on my last post. I’m feeling the love. And it means a lot.