Holidays Without Family Don’t Have to be Joyless

It hurts to be away from family this holiday season. And it’s not just the pain of missing someone. If you’re feeling extra frustrated and hopeless this season, what you’re experiencing is grief.

Your idea of Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season (and spring and summer 2020 for that matter) were taken from you. And no amount of bargaining, good behavior, or money could bring it back. It was out of your control. You have been forced to give up your expectation. It sucks. The feeling you have right now is grief. You’re grieving.

But grief and joy aren’t mutually exclusive.

A lot of us are heartbroken right now. We might be heartbroken because we’ve decided to cancel our Thanksgiving traditions for the first time this year. If we haven’t done that, we might be heartbroken that some of our loved ones aren’t coming. Regardless of why you’re feeling heartbroken this Thanksgiving, I want to offer you hope.

What lot of people don’t tell you about grief is that you can have it — you can be deep in it, and you can still have joy, too.

Ask any military Veteran who wasn’t home for a holiday. They grieved not being home. They also found a way to enjoy the experience for what it was. They’ll never forget that holiday they couldn’t be with their family — both…