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# Ahead of Myself
- URL: https://www.raincrossgazette.com/ahead-of-myself/
- Published: 2026-10-03T12:00:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-03T12:00:45.000Z
- Description: A prompt to encourage your practice of creativity this week from Riversider and local author Larry Burns.
- Author: Larry Burns
- Tags: Creative Prompts, opinion, Culture

Welcome back, you coffee-pot philosophers! [Last week](https://www.raincrossgazette.com/the-pot-thickens/), we gave the pot a little of the attention it usually pours into us. Maybe you brewed some patience for the day ahead. I’m still considering the coffee pot as a place where conversations begin while something else finishes. Even the interval between an empty cup and a full one gives us room to wander. Provided, of course, that somebody remembered to turn on the machine.

This week’s nudge is arriving early. Yes, that spatial arrangement made possible when you show up before the appointed time. Sometimes we arrive at our destination ahead of schedule because traffic has performed a rare disappearing act, or we want to be the first ones through the door. Some are simply built that way, arriving with minutes to spare and then wonder where to put them.

I always planned to arrive thirty minutes early for job interviews so I could stroll in *ten* minutes before my timeslot. That margin leaves room to find the right building/dept/office combo, figuring out parking rules, and maybe another scan of my resume. Being early sends signals I’m generally happy to transmit: this matters to me, I respect your time. 

Of course, those signals depend on the occasion. Early to an interview can look prepared. Early to a dinner party can look like someone who needs a hobby. There’s a small performance involved in being available without making ourselves somebody else’s pet project. Sitting quietly can require more acting ability than we get credit for.

I like getting up before the sun. I also like leaving concerts, galas and other crowded events early enough to avoid the traffic. I’m willing to get ahead of both daylight and brake lights. As a writer and artist, I have routines, but no time clock. Being up early doesn’t automatically make those minutes billable. I can enjoy the beginning of a day before the day gets away. And it does.

Reaching for the phone is easy when we’re early; a little email is just being efficient, right? What if we let ourselves become interested in where we’ve landed? There’s something mildly absurd about rushing somewhere and then refusing to be present.

Now would be an excellent time to take a few moments of creative distraction with one or more of these patient prompts:

1. **Welcome Wagon:** In your parked car, rehearse a ten-second welcome to this particular place. Give it first as a museum guide, then as an airport announcer or an overly enthusiastic game-show host. Work one visible detail into each version. Listen to how your voice changes. Decide which host, if any, you’d like to bring inside.
2. **Before and After:** While outside, choose one small patch of the scene. Remember three details about it, then turn your attention elsewhere for a minute. Look back and find what changed: a shadow, a person’s position, a door now open. Mentally arrange the two views as neighboring comic panels. Let the change provide the punch line
3. **Opening Chorus:** Listen for the sounds people make before things officially start: shoes approaching, a greeting, chairs shifting. Choose one ordinary phrase you hear and silently turn it into the refrain of a tiny song. Let the room’s existing rhythm supply the tune. “Is this seat taken?” might finally get the musical career it deserves
4. **Three Auditions:** In a waiting room, quietly try sitting as a confident applicant, a curious tourist and royalty traveling without staff. Give each role a few seconds. Notice what changes in your shoulders, feet and contact with the chair. Borrow one small movement for your own arrival.
5. **Verb Service:** Finish this sentence without using “waiting”: “For the next three minutes, I’m…” Try scouting, rehearsing, listening or collecting evidence of life. Choose a verb and follow through. Collect three sounds or scout the room’s least noticed view. When someone asks what you’re doing, you’ll have a suprisingly accurate answer.

I’m unlikely to give up arriving early. I like the margin it gives me, and sometimes I need it. But I can give those minutes something more interesting to do than increase my productivity. This week, wherever you find yourself ahead of schedule, let your attention catch up with your body. You’re already there.

*This column was written with help from ChatGPT; happy to explain punctuality at considerable length.*