Can grief and joy coexist?

“Walk with Your Dreams” (2026) transformed Milton Keynes’ Station Square into a beacon of bright symbolism at busy UK transport hub. (Stephen Chung/Milton Keynes Council)

When you send messages out into the world, sometimes they come back bearing gifts.

Today, a dear friend sent me an article about Kenyan-British artist Yinka Ilori called, What happens when a designer known for joy encounters Grief, and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

At 39, Ilori is showing us how much beauty and joy can grow out of grief, if we let the complexity bloom.

A few moments that stayed with me:

On not waiting. "I don't really believe in having a retrospective when your career is nearly over. Why wait until I'm 80 or 90?... I don't want to shy away from the idea of being 39 and doing it. Why not?"

On joy and grief living side by side. After losing his mother, Ilori worried his bright, exuberant work might feel inauthentic. But when he let himself move through his grief, he discovered a deeper, more complex kind of joy waiting alongside it.

On transgenerational joy. "We spend a lot of time talking about transgenerational trauma, but what about transgenerational joy — those seeds of joy that were given to us and that we pass on as rituals to our loved ones and communities?"

From that question, he founded the Yinka Ilori Foundation, which builds playgrounds for children in underserved communities. These aren't cookie-cutter spaces. They're co-designed with the people who live there. Children don't need permission to feel joy the way adults sometimes do, but they do need room to experiment and play.

What a beautiful lesson in sitting with grief, letting it teach us, and finding light within the dark.

What seeds of joy were passed down to you?