Interview with Tomas Mendola
By Marcia Galleher
M. Galleher: Please introduce yourself to the Puna community. Who are you?
Aloha. My name is Tomas Mendola and an import from Southern Arizona, originally from Buffalo, New York. I am a retired educator and businessman, having worked with real estate, and a father of three sons. I arrived here in August 2020 and am a householder in Seaview. I have been working with non-profit and yoga organizations for the last twenty years and have been happy to work with our growing community.
M. Galleher: You have a lot of experience with groups of people working towards a greater purpose. Tell us about the Harmony & Health Foundation.
Harmony & Health Foundation was founded in Tucson, Arizona in the mid-1980s. It originally served as a community resource for families and children with an emphasis on education and healing modalities. In the early years of 2000, Harmony & Health acquired land outside of Tucson and began a project of sustainable community building and modeling. It also developed a program for building a healing sanctuary.
M. Galleher: How can our community get involved with Harmony & Health?
For the last four years, the foundation has been promoting a yoga practice of Mantra chanting every Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm at my home in Seaview. The community is also welcome to join a Yoga Sutra study group on Tuesday mornings at 10:00 am. We also share in reading translations from the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, Buddha’s Dhammapada, and the Upanishads. Hope Johnson offers a non-dual perspective in her Wisdom Dialogs on Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 pm. All these gatherings are free. Tea is served. Harmony & Health also supports other members of the community to share inspirational ideas and help put them into practice.
M. Galleher: As the CEO of Harmony & Health, what is your intent for the foundation as it continues to adapt to the rise in consciousness and awareness?
Harmony & Health is primarily interested in supporting practices that lead us to what is called nirvana, samadhi, the ‘field’ or ecstasy. This assumes an understanding that this life we live is really us as spiritually conscious beings living a human experience. By realizing this and living from that positive, constructive, and authentic understanding brings with it the ability to govern and adjust our Life path, our dharma, and bring more health and harmony, more peace and happiness into our lives, and include those around us.
M. Galleher: It seems Harmony & Health is a strong philosophical foundation supporting the growth of spiritual health and wellness. Can you continue to explain your view on this?
Currently, we are interested in bringing groups together into the like-mindedness of their common goals and understandings. Recently, the Foundation hosted a ‘Wellness Mixer’ for people involved in the healing arts in Puna. Thirty participants stood in a circle, held hands, and joined their voices together as one voice! The experience of being in a circle of Oneness is simple but truly powerful! Going around, each person was seen, spoke their name, and explained what they do. In a way, it was really an example of dancing in this duality that we live in; the idea of demonstrating a personal self as a wellness practitioner and also being part of the divine self. All of us together as One, with one voice and a feeling of family. The dynamics of our physical, emotional, and mental resonance bring us into a spiritual resonance of our own creation. This we carry forward into our healing practices.
M. Galleher: To summarize, what is your current goal for Harmony & Health Foundation?
The idea of inviting groups together, to know each other as cooperative agents in the creation of our common vision.
M. Galleher:Will the Foundation be offering any upcoming community events?
We are looking forward to inviting non-profit groups or organizations of Puna to get together for a similar mixer. The goal would be to see how we can better serve our communities and work with our challenges.
CONTACT: Tomas Mendola can be reached at 520-400-4489. Harmony & Health Foundation is based in his home at 12-220 Mapuana Avenue. Contact him in advance for a meeting or attend the already scheduled gatherings: Sunday 4:00 – 5:00 pm, Mantra Chanting: Tuesday 10:00 – 11:30 am, Yoga Sutra Study Group: Wednesday 4:00 – 6:00 pm Hope Johnson Wisdom Dialogs
Marcia Galleher
Marcia Galleher, instructor for over 30 years, offers intuitive based teaching rooted in Hatha Yoga. Her classes focus on integrating the mind and body through a creative sequence of postures combined with conscious breathing. A resident of Kalapana Seaview Estates for nine years, Marcia provides community classes at her home Yoga Studio, at Kalani Oceanside Retreat and online to beginning and continuing students. In conjunction with teaching yoga, she is a wife to John Galleher for many years, a mother and grandmother 'Nani'. Marcia's passions include being an artist, gardener, musician and explorer of western and Mayan astrology. She believes all our thoughts, actions and spoken words are to be considered, supporting harmony and cooperation in the world we share. All is One.