Interesting title for a yoga blog, eh?  Well, I got married on 02/02/13.

and for my husband and I this was our second wedding. We have everything we need and more.  While I had a brief moment going through the Williams Sonoma catalog where I thought “hmmmm, that pasta maker looks nice” I knew I didn’t need it and could get it on my own.

So we decided to ask for donations in lieu of gifts.  Our preferences were Big Dog Ranch Rescue (www.bdrr.org) and my husband’s fraternity scholarship fund, Delta Sigma Pi (www.dsp.org).  The response was overwhelming.

We  adopted our 16 month old puppy, Jezebel Snowflake, from BDRR and were extremely impressed with their facility.  It is huge, and started off as a Weimaraner rescue and eventually merged to become BDRR.  Don’t let the name fool you – they have big dogs, small dogs, medium dogs, purebreds (especially Weims), mutts … you name it.  They have a clinic on site and are working on improving it.

How does this relate to yoga?  So many ways.  Giving is so much of yoga.  Whether your teacher is giving you class, you are giving your energy to your teacher, teachers and students give each other knowledge …. plus the compassion that we learn from yoga.  While I have compassion for many and much, I was able to settle on BDRR as a place where I could put my compassion to good use.  I intend to continue trying to support them in any way I can.

For my husband, his fraternity has been a gift to him in many ways.  Literally life time friends he has made, skills he has learned that have enriched his life, and in his fraternity, he learned the importance of giving back.  By the way, his fraternity is business-related.  While I’m sure they had their share of fun in college there was also a point.  Interestingly, when I first started teaching, he was able to impart to me some of the public speaking skills he had learned through his fraternity.  And since becoming a part of the yoga “fraternity”, my husband has really pulled together the benefits from the years of being a part of his fraternity and been able to relate what he has taken away from the fraternity over the years to what he takes from yoga.  So for him, to give back was to ask for donations to a scholarship program that funds current college students to attend fraternity seminars.

Eddie Stephens, Board Certified Marital & Family Attorney

Yogic principles trickle down to so many different aspects of our lives, and frankly, once you start to live with more yogic principles, the more you begin to see the good in your past and present experiences.  So for us, the ability to have our friends and family give to charities that give back to others, it felt like a good way to celebrate the beginning of our lives together.  Love feels like an awakening and transformation.  Once you awaken, you begin to transform, and then you want to give back.  XOXO