The shorter story behind it's thyme

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!

We decided to unite again after finishing up our Master degrees in International Development and Leadership for Sustainability in France and Sweden. At that point both of us 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 regenerative 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We are powerful when we listen to our own seasons, rythms and bloom in our unique potential and let go of the outdated patterns!

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 (re)built by people who feel embedded in nature, recognize that there is enough for everyone and feel connected to themselves? The desire to find out led to the foundation of it’s thyme.

1. We wanted to create more learning spaces embedded in nature, like the farm we went to, but make them more accessible, “urban touched” and integrated into and impactful for the local communities! We envisioned them as places 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 new stfrom a state of relaxation, inspiration and motivation – supported by a community of like-minded people in a thriving hotspot of change & participation! We developed the Hope Hub concept and are so happy that we are currently building the first one in Galicia, Spain.

2. We wanted 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 longings and are ready to change their lives and the structures around them, fullyhearted.
We can’t believe that it’s thyme has already grown into some kind of bigger organization with a wonderful team, advisory board and soo many supporters from all kinds of branches and areas of life!