Philanthropy: HUB Gives Big on Big Island

Where can you meet individuals so aligned with service and bringing forth their brilliance for the benefit of humanity that you experience a heightened sense of support - by life - a sustained flow of grace and connection? Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB) hosted an Awakening Your Brilliance conference on the Big Island, Dec. 5-7. My partner, Bentley, and I participated in a group blessing facilitated by the loving presence and positive intentions of 7 Kahuna, and visits with turtles, organic farmers, brilliant teachers, amazing visionaries, generous musicians, and more.


We arrived on Thursday the 4th and stepped into the thickest VOG (volcanic fog) either of us had ever seen. When the HUB conference started on Friday, the veil of VOG began lifting and by the weekend the atmosphere was clear – and clarity was the theme.

HUB is a humanitarian call to action. It’s rather like a strand of social DNA – a model of sustainable giving and receiving for a world that is witness to the failures of an economic system that is based on separation and lack.


We experienced first hand the depth of HUB founder, Charlie Gay’s, heart; we were edutained by leading edge authors; Robert Scheinfeld (Breaking Out of the Money Game), Janet Atwood (The Passion Test), and Michael Oliver (Natural Selling); entertained by award winning entertainers, Lynn Rose and Faith Rivera; inspired by Feed333 luminaries and HUB co-founders, Spryte Loriano and Hawaii’s native sister, Sharan Ro; blessed by Kumus ‘Ola Leina’ala K. Brown and Dr. Kahealani Satchitananda, and called into service for the benefit of a single mom with 3 kids and a young family living in their van. Every aspect of the weekend conference gave us permission to push our boundaries and shift our perceptions.


Highlights for me included asking Kumu ‘Ola Leina’ala permission to initiate a culturally rich music video project (Spirit In Hawai’i) and receiving a resounding “YES.” On Saturday night we had the opportunity to sing Honor Who You Are into a resonant field that included most of the luminaries listed above. The HUB sponsored Awakening Your Brilliance conference finale on Sunday evening was the Huggo’s party in central Kona (a few blocks from where we were staying). Bentley and I introduced ourselves to musician, Donald Kualia, and told him we were from Maui. From that moment on he kept saying “MAUI’S IN THE HOUSE!” When it became our private joke, we let him know the common denominator of the group was not Maui but HUB, and then that became the acknowledgment.

Letting a fellow musician on your stage can be very tricky. Poor judgment can be the end of your gig. Donald graciously accommodated Bentley's request to sing to our new HUB friends. She donned Kualia’s nylon string electric guitar (which is what she plays professionally), plugged in a portable MP3 player, and cued up her original track, We Are The Ones, while I plugged in Donald’s acoustic Taylor steel string guitar (with lots of volume and effects). Perfection would have included a second mic, but Bentley’s performance connected with HUB hearts (and I remembered all the chords of Bentley’s unifying anthem, even after a "few" margaritas :-).


Our Monday adventure began at 6am. Whatever we did, we had to be at the Kona airport by 11 and leave time for fill up, rental return, shuttle and check-in. We stop for coffee near Captain Cook and by 8am we arrive at our destination; Colehour and Melanie’s organic farm. Our gracious hosts gave us a complete tour of their 5 acres of edible landscaping - traditional Hawaiian permaculture. We left with a bag full of cuttings; spinach, sweet potatoes, kaput, cassava, Kilimanjaro basil…and some of their homegrown….coffee that is. It turns out Melanie is great friends with my GMO FREE Maui friends. The circles of brilliance expand.

It was most interesting to observe the effect of this wave of possibility on our friend and host in Kona. While talking the previous week on a completely different subject, we learned we were both going to Kona so he invited us to stay in his condo building in the center of town. It seems that every time a challenge of perception came up, we offered an empowered twist that he tried on immediately. The results were that everything that seemed like a hassle and that kept him conflicted, was instantly resolved.

Note: HUB represents a model for how to organize and connect to support our own community. Bentley and I would like to connect with those who want to awaken and clarify their own unique brilliance and integrate it with local impact teams for community good. Who Do You Know In San Diego Who Would Like to Awaken Their Brilliance? We would like to gift 4 Free Tickets to the next conference at the Courtyard Marriott Airport, February 20-22 ($500 Value each). To learn more about Humanity Unites Brilliance, visit our affiliate page.