Grief: Antonymy

What is grief? 

That’s a question I tried to answer in many blog posts. But now it seems that those answers are not what it really is since I lost the father of my sons. I can't define it at all because it is a series of antonymy, a word I just learned while solving a crossword puzzle. 

Suddenly, this new word (by coincidence, Tony's name is smack in the middle) in my vocabulary explained my complex moods and feelings after my roommate of 54 years left for home. 

Antonymy is defined as the semantic relationship between words that have opposite meanings; the "oppositeness" or contradictory nature of words. 

Grief is an antonymy that runs from one end to the other at varying speed. Sometimes it is slow, sometimes it is instant, sometimes it stops midway. 

    • Push Pull 

    • Make Break

    • Cry Laugh 

    • Give Take 

    • Start Stop

    • Begin End

    • Destroy Build 

    • Close Open 

    • Enter Exit

    • Ask Answer

    • Come Go

    • Lose Win 

    • Join Leave

    • Keep Release

    • Hide Show

    • Eat Fast

    • Sit Stand 

      

The preposition “from” precedes the word where we are.  “To” precedes the contrasting word where we should be.  

Thankfully, between “from” and “to,” grace comes to speed up the process. 

To my dear friends and family out there who might have recently lost a loved one and are likewise in grief, let us be comforted by the Lord’s promise:    

“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalms 34:18 (ESV)