Hi Jami - I can feel you're on a deep journey of discovery

It might help to turn the perspective around - how might you be betraying them by not allowing them to experience the truth? As you know, we cannot protect or walk the path for another - which is tantamount to control, and of itself is therefore NOT unconditionally loving. As you've discovered, it's straightforwards to deal with your own pain of loss, when you know how to dive into the centre of it. But when you feel you might be the cause of someone else's pain, that's a whole new ball game, a whole deeper level. Yet pain is what also forges the soul, and so we must summon the courage to allow others also the opportunity to grow through it. This then, is also unconditional love - being prepared to hold the crucible in which others achieve liberation by the confrontation of their pain. It's a whole new level of mastery.

Wishing you well in that.

Open