Back in November I made a trip to Nashville to promote my work; specifically, my brand new Southern Living series. While there, my friend Jason was nice enough to let me crash at his house. During my stay, he and his family really made an impression on me.

Jason and Myra have now been married for 15 years. Their first date was her high school prom 18 years ago. They have three great – good-natured – kids. This says a whole lot about them just in itself. But what was it that made such an impression on me? How they were consciously choosing to live their everyday lives, that’s what. It isn’t just Southern Living on their part – it’s smart living.

They really make a conscious effort to eat right. They own stock in a local dairy farm so they can get milk that is totally natural with no pasteurization. They raise chickens in their backyard from which they get all of their eggs. They make their own cheese and butter. They grow as many of their own fruits and vegetables as they can in their backyard.

Yes, they make a real effort in their day-to-day lives to watch what they put in their bodies. But, they are not so militant about it that they refuse to occasionally pick up something like a frozen pizza from the grocery store when they need to eat, but just don’t have time to cook as they usually do.

Why do they go to all this effort? Cancer. Cancer runs in both Jason and Myra’s family. Nobody knows what it is that causes some types of cancer to show up in people, but they, Jason & Myra, are convinced that the random chemicals / hormones that are used to make things more “convenient” to eat (longer shelf life, easier to prepare, easy to find, cheaper etc.) aren’t helping the problem at all. They’re making such an effort to eat the way they do – ultimately – for their kids.

In addition to this, after being there for a day or so, I learned that Myra was a clinical psychologist up until they had their first kid. They decided that their kids would be better off with her staying home with them, eventually homeschooling them as she does now. They gave up the extra financial security that her job would have provided – for their kids education and wellbeing. Jason is a self-employed handyman, and when you look around their house, you can see that they live a very modest lifestyle. Nothing fancy, but you get the distinct impression that they are living debt free. And that is very fancy in my opinion.

All that I have mentioned here about them is easy to talk about doing, but actually being willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do it – isn’t. We live in a world – sadly – where people are admired for how nice their car is or how big their house is. How much money they appear to have, with no thought as to how much debt they may have in order to maintain that appearance. All the while, not giving the things that can’t be bought the time and attention they deserve: Their health – and their relationship with their friends, their family, and their God.

I thought green eggs were just something you read about in a book that Dr. Seuss made up with his imagination and pen, until I saw these fresh green eggs that had just been laid that morning by their chickens.

A lot of people may put jars of various beans and grains like this on top of their cabinets just for decoration. Not the Bennetts though. This is actually their food. There is a uniqueness to this to me due to so many things we eat – or I eat – that is processed and in some kind of packaging and preserved state. My visit with them really got me to thinking more about how bad my eating habits are.

Myra’s medicine cabinet. She isn’t opposed to modern medicine, but she turns to natural remedies first.

They had various Bible verses written on the walls of both of the kids rooms, but this one in particular stood out to me. It was on the wall in their girls’ room. What a great message to instill in any child – girls in particular.

This is their middle child, Lydia, up on the counter eating some of the fresh pudding her dad had made. Lydia was 5 when I took this, and as good-natured as it gets. It didn’t take her long to warm up to me, and once she did, she made me feel like she had known me her whole life.

Jason and Myra are both strong Christians, and they’re raising their kids to be too. Jason was playing a Hillsong United song in this photo, while Aaron, their youngest son, was running around the living room and kitchen singing along with him at the top of his lungs. He was only two years old at the time, and he knew the lyrics by heart. I’m not really a big contemporary Christian music fan, but hearing a two-year-old singing / screaming Forever Reign along with his father was pretty great. I don’t think it could have sounded any better to me from a spiritual standpoint. Aaron just turned three this month.

This is their oldest, Sara. She asked me if I wanted her to catch a chicken. I didn’t see any reason why not, so I asked if I could do a portrait of her once she did. This is it. When I left she gave me some of her artwork – a watercolor painting of some fish. I now have it hanging on my fridge. When I go back up there again I’m going to return the gesture, and give her some of my artwork that was made possible by her: a print of this portrait. I love this photo of her.

I took this casual family shot of them all in their backyard in front of their chicken coop – aiming to capture them as you would see them in their everyday life. This shoot was cut short due to a thunderstorm that started while I was shooting. This is The Bennetts, and the world would be a better place with more people like them in it.