When Grief & Gratitude Sit at the Same Table

Thanksgiving can be complex.

For many of us, it’s never just joy, never just sadness; it’s both. It’s holding the warmth of the present in one hand while your other hand still aches for what was lost. And that duality doesn’t make you weak or ungrateful. It makes you human.

Grief doesn’t disappear just because the calendar says today is a holiday.

It shows up in the quiet spaces, an empty seat, a missing laugh, a memory that rises uninvited. But gratitude shows up too. Sometimes soft. Sometimes late. Sometimes in the small ways that remind us we’re still alive, still healing, still capable of joy after everything.

Grief asks, “Why did this happen?”

Gratitude whispers, “But look at what remains.”

And the truth is, they can coexist.

You can miss someone and still enjoy the food on your plate.

You can mourn what didn’t happen this year and still give thanks for the support that carried you through.

You can feel the sting of the past and still find reasons to smile today.

Grief is the shadow of love.

Gratitude is the light that lets you see your way forward.

So if your heart feels crowded today, if you’re laughing one minute and fighting back tears the next, know that nothing is wrong with you. You’re navigating the most human of emotions: loving what was, appreciating what is, and hoping for what will be.

Let both grief and gratitude have a seat.

Both have something to teach.

Both deserve space.

And both can lead you back to yourself.

With love and fire,
Ms. Bina
The Renaissance Woman the Algorithm Warned You About