Our story


What’s the story behind it’s thyme?

Hi there! We are Julia and Hannah, twin sisters from Münster, Germany.
We know, it’s very clichee of us working together as twins, but we can’t help it!

After exploring how it is to live serparate from each other while individually studying and working in different cities and countries, we finally decided to unite again after finishing up our Master degrees in International Development and Leadership for Sustainability in France and Sweden. At that point we were quite confused about our next “career steps”. Our minds and hearts were tired as it became more and more difficult to digest the significance of contemporary crises. What a world we live in – what could we possibly do to take actions that truly change something?

Well, we asked a good friend for a loan and signed up for a year-long program on a small farm in the middle of Germany. We were privileged enough to basically buy ourselves some “time out” to slow down, reflect on our studies and life so far and be at a place where we could freely learn about a concept that promised solutions to our today’s problems: permaculture. This year turned out to be one of the best decision of our lives!

We know the following might sound cheesy, but we can’t help it – again! We fell in love not only with permaculture but also with ourselves and life again. The slowness, the beauty of being free, the time to listen to what we truly want from life rather than what was expected from us and connecting with nature on such a personal level that we had never experienced before. We learned that our greatest teacher was nature. We slowly understood how ecosystems function and how complex, diverse and highly intelligent they are. We recognized our interdependence and the principles of nature in ourselves: We are powerful when we listen to our own seasons, rythms and bloom in our unique potential and let go of the rest!

We could not stop dreaming about a world where everyone knew about these simple yet powerful principles that can literally bring so much more joy, resilience and wellbeing to their lives and environment when they are lovingly cultivated. Simply knowing isn’t enough we thought, we wanted people to feel it in their hearts and bodies just like we were experiencing. We wondered: How would a society look like that is built by people who feel embedded in nature, recognize the abundance in it and feel connected to themselves? The desire to find out led to the foundation of it’s thyme.

We had no idea how we were going to approach this (and we are still trying to figure it out) but we have come to some clarity:

1. We want to create more learning spaces like the farm we went to with permaculture gardens and nature exposure, but make them more accessible, “urban touched”, fun and impactful and integrated into the local community! We envision it as a place where you can take a break from your normal life to zoom out, reflect, recharge, learn about and connect with the intelligence of nature to co-create a new world from a state of relaxation, inspiration and motivation – supported by a community of like-minded people in a thriving hotspot of change & participation! We have added a first draft of a visual vision of our Communtiy Hubs here.

2. Through our offers and spaces, we want to build a community. As both of us have often felt lonely in our aches and desires for a different world, It’s thyme feels mostly as a gift to ourselves: finding and connecting with people that share our aches and are ready to change their lives and the structures around them, fullyhearted.

If any of this resonates with you, you want to support us or simply have a chat, we are excited to connect or meet you along the way!

Julia
Creative mind, the art of being and simplicity,
body- & earth-based practices,
Leadership for Sustainability (MS)
Permaculture Design Certificate
Funfact: Julia always wanted to become a Roxy-girl when she was younger 😀 and become a professional surfer

Hannah
Mastermind, breaking down complexity,
social justice and human rights,
International development (MS)
Permaculture Design Certificate
Funfact: Hannah LOVES good musicals and wants to write her own, act and play in a musical herself in this or her next life 😀