This is so wonderful--wonderful beyond that we are so much on the same page re soul plans/soul contracts, which while not getting hung up on terminology (agree with you there as well--it took me some time after my awakening to loosen up that way), I prefer to call improv scripts to account for free will.

I got chills reading this. I believe various aspects of understanding unconditional love (and what it is and what it is not) were part of my current plan too (parental, romantic, platonic, friendships--all of it). I used to think it meant taking a bullet for someone. It can mean that, but really I don't think unconditional love requires such sacrifice, or the other sacrifices people make which confuse codependency with love.

I wrote this set of tanka early in my Medium experience. https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/unconditional-love-3481bffe22f4 Recently, I wrote these poems, which while my thoughts were about God (again, not a place to get hung up on labels), they apply equally to undconditional love between humans. https://medium.com/write-under-the-moon/why-does-suffering-exist-aa99da8a1404

Unconditional love can include detaching with love. https://marcus17043.medium.com/when-should-one-detach-with-love-f63180af8c8d like the choice you were faced with--you came up with an inbetween solution 😊 Which I see I eventually came around to with my father.

Lastly, what ocurred to me while reading your essay and added to the chills I felt is it reminded me of Hermann Hesse's first novel, Peter Camenzind and how he (the title character) learned to love unconditionally through his relationship with a child and then a severely handicapped man. I wrote about it here, if you feel pulled to read it. https://medium.com/write-under-the-moon/learning-to-love-by-observing-the-art-of-dying-well-2048b13f71d2