NeuroDivine

The day begins in the half‑light, with the 07:07 train pulling out of Monasterevin. A familiar rhythm now — six‑monthly pauses, a journey towards Beaumont Hospital, where care and compassion meet in the clinic’s quiet rooms. Each visit feels like stepping across a threshold: from ordinary life into a space where health is tended, hope is renewed, and the story of living with HIV continues to unfold.

Thresholds are holy places. The platform edge, the tram doors, the hospital entrance — each one asks me to pause, to notice, to breathe. They remind me that life with HIV is not only about blood tests and consultations, but about crossing into deeper awareness: of resilience, of community, of grace.

And now another threshold approaches: World AIDS Day, Monday 1 December 2025. Dublin will mark it with light and colour, with voices raised and stories shared. Trinity College will glow red against the winter sky. A festival will gather artists, activists, and friends. Films will premiere, nails will be painted, conversations will spark in unexpected places. Each event is a doorway, inviting us to step inside and remember, to stand together, to celebrate progress and to confront stigma.

I have stood at this threshold many times before. Since 2009, each World AIDS Day has carried its own weight: remembrance, resilience, renewal. Sixteen years of candles lit, ribbons worn, stories told. Sixteen years of progress in treatment, of campaigns against stigma, of communities finding their voice. Sixteen years of crossing the threshold again and again, never alone, always with companions on the journey.

For me, the clinic and the festival belong to the same rhythm. One is quiet, clinical, personal. The other is public, vibrant, communal. Both are thresholds of grace — places where we are reminded that HIV is not the end of the story, but part of a larger journey of care, courage, and connection.

As I cross the threshold this morning, I carry with me the promise of Monday: that we will gather, remember, and shine. That in every doorway — hospital, college, salon, street corner — grace waits to meet us. And that after sixteen years of World AIDS Days, the light still shines, the story still unfolds, and hope still walks beside us.

Originally posted on HIVBlogger.com