Healing Kiss Acreage — A Living Sanctuary

There is a piece of land in Metchosin that has learned how to listen.

For nearly nine years, it has quietly opened its arms to people in moments of breaking, becoming, and becoming-again. What began as a private home slowly transformed into something far more rare — a living sanctuary known as Healing Kiss Acreage.

This land has held hundreds of people through seasons of transition. Some arrived carrying grief, some exhaustion, some fear, some hope. Survivors of violence, people navigating mental health challenges, artists, caregivers, seekers — all found something here that is increasingly hard to come by: safety without condition, community without judgment, and space to breathe.

Healing Kiss is not just housing.

It is a place where creativity is medicine.

Where art, ceremony, and conversation soften the nervous system.

Where people are met as whole human beings, not problems to be solved.

Today, nine residents call this land home, living affordably and with care for one another. Around them, the acreage continues to hum with possibility — workshops, meditations, gatherings, fundraisers, shared meals, creative experiments, and long quiet moments beneath the trees. One of the buildings is lovingly known by neighbours as “The Old School House,” a name that reflects how naturally this place has become a site of learning, imagination, and shared wisdom.

The vision for Healing Kiss continues to grow. A nonprofit is already in the process of being formally established. Dreams held collectively by residents and community members include a greenhouse and garden, weekly meditations, ecstatic dance, cooperative living, land-based education, and a potential nature school — all rooted in respect for the forest and the people it shelters.

At this moment, the land stands at a threshold.

Due to changing financial systems and lending regulations, Healing Kiss faces a short-term funding gap that must be bridged to secure its future. Part of the solution is already in place through private support, and additional community backing is needed to carry the land safely through this transition and into long-term stability.

This challenge is not the result of neglect or failure. Quite the opposite — Healing Kiss has always operated with a people-first philosophy, reinvesting resources into care, maintenance, and accessibility rather than profit. It has worked because it was built on relationship, trust, and love. Those same values now ask for collective support.

What is at risk is not just a property.

It is a home.

A safe haven.

A creative commons.

A patch of forest protected and tended.

A place where people remember who they are.

Many of you have already shaped this land — by attending gatherings, living here for a season, helping build or repair structures, sharing ceremony, art, labour, laughter, and care. Healing Kiss exists because of community, and it will continue because of community.

This fundraiser is a bridge — not an ending, but a continuation. A moment where the land asks to be held, just as it has held so many.

Any contribution, or even sharing this campaign, helps keep this sanctuary alive and growing. We have a deadline of February 2nd to find funding of $115 000, all efforts are being exhausted at this time.

With gratitude, trust, and deep belief in what is possible when we do not do things alone —

thank you for being part of Healing Kiss.