So if I could get away with it, I’d probably scale things back until I owned nothing and lived in a van down by the river.

There wouldn’t be a whole lot to be responsible for in that case.

I’d own nothing except for my van and a whole lot of cloth diapers.

I’d probably need to get a gym membership so that we could all work out and clean up.

I’d have to have some gas to get to the gym…unless I didn’t complete the cliché and could live in back of the YMCA instead of down by the river.

I’d pull up in the mail jeep after a day of work, pull right in next to the van, and yell, “Honey…I’m home!!” and Jenny and the kids would peel themselves out of the van and greet me and then we’d get in the van and sit and wonder what it would feel like to have to worry about a possession like a REAL HOUSE.

Jenny would hate that.

Of course, the cliché is a sad and solitary man down by the river, compromised and given up, alone in his Econoline.

When you try and fit a family of 6 in a van, it would be too crowded for a long term living experience.

That would be kind of crazy.

I guess that when you get down to it, I need my stuff.

I need a bigger box to live in than a van provides.

I can’t see us all living in a van down by the river.

Mostly, I’m wondering if the absence of stuff is the same as the absence of worries?

If “nothing to have” is the same as “nothing to worry about”?

The “nothing ventured” in the title is all about considering an even bigger box to live in…or at least a smaller box on a bigger piece of land.

I’m moving farther away from “nothing” to worry about.

But if you don’t try, you’ve already failed.

I don’t know if complacency is the same as being comfortable.

Awwwww…what the heck. Go for it…what’s the worst that could happen?

There’s the million dollar question…”what’s the worst…”

I guess the answer to that would be the last part of that old phrase…the one I didn’t finish in the title of the post….

maybe the “worst” really is “nothing gained”?

Nothing gained except for a couple of new wrinkles and a way to worry about what already is…never mind the worries over “what could be”.

( Quick aside…for a break from unfocused rambling…check out this blog, Our Open Road…but do it after you try and finish reading my blog. I’d hate to think you missed any of ME. Now that’s a family doing it up right…living in a van by multiple rivers….and mountains…and oceans, etc. Check it out in a while…it’s pretty interesting.)

I’m going to jump this time…right into the river…going to see what rocks I bounce off of before I come out at the ocean…sandy beach and new sunrise and a place for the kids to run…maybe a different tree for a new swing, too…maybe even that?

I drink my juice, I make my coffee, I eat my oatmeal, I pack my lunch, I go to work and then come home.

I don’t stray from the habits I build. I don’t venture.

I DON’T TAKE CHANCES…I JUST THINK ABOUT THEM!!!!

What the heck…I don’t take chances…

But check out that old barn…and the…what about the?….and….

What do they say? “Nothing ventured…”?

I’m so freaking froggy.