A toromiro history
In 2015, Elizabeth was pondering her research one day and realised she had not looked thoroughly into one of the plant motifs in a relevant novel, about an adventure to Easter Island to discover the Mystery of the World. What precisely was this ‘sophora toromiro’ she wondered? Her searching led her straight to Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, and before she knew it she had become captivated by the story of the ‘Easter Island Tree’.
On the world’s most remote island, far from any other land, and its only home, the toromiro tree had once been plentiful, with glades around the island used for firewood, seafaring, talismans and items for everyday use. Yet a series of events – including progressive deforestation due to overpopulation and the introduction of sheep farming following the ‘discovery’ of the island by Europeans – meant that by the 1900s only a few, then only one toromiro were left.
In the 1960s the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl had carefully detached a last remaining branch of the last remaining seeds from the last remaining tree from the depths of an old volcanic crater where the sickly plant hid from view, and brought the plant and its seeds to Sweden. There the seeds were carefully planted yet all but forgotten, until two awakening moments… in the peace of the botanical garden greenhouse, unbeknownst to the outside world, where the the toromiro was now being declared extinct, the seeds began to germinate, to sprout and to grow.
As I read about this plant, something deep stirred within me, and something that in the last few years I have come to see touches deeply to my sense of what it means to be human, to treasure the deepest, truest and wildest aspects of our nature, and to make space for those in the midst of the pressing demands of the overpopulation of time, the deforestation of soul, and herd-sanctioned chomping of ‘civilisation’ . The toromiro has become a motif for the deaths and resurrections of being, and of the need to create spaces for ourselves and each other where we can be true to the laws of our own nature, to enable new life to flourish, and to make a contribution from who we are.
The lessons the toromiro has taught me have grown and renewed all the places of my own being, work, community and relationships, and these values and ways of being underpin the design, writing and facilitation work found in these pages.
A community of ‘toromiros’ is growing up, and our experimentations with how to live the deepest, truest life, and a life a radical goodness and beauty, is renewing the soil around us, allowing us to stretch into our own selves and to provide the shade, nourishment and information to others who draw alongside us.
Application of these qualities into the everyday life environments of project management, negotiations, sales skills, conducting an appraisal, renewing an organisational culture, growing leadership that can hold its ground and offer stability in times of chaos is the fundamental work of Toromiros. For this we need each other, because the work of true renewal is more than can be done by anyone alone. Join us!