One question my wife and I often ask each other is: Why do you think you chose to incarnate as a human?

We imagine ourselves as pre-human spirits before birth, debating whether or not we should dip our toes into the earth realm for a lifetime or two. Suppose we choose to incarnate, and down comes the veil of forgetfulness as we turn into babies. Where would we want to be born? What experiences would we like to have? What sort of challenges would we be willing to take on?

Of course I don’t really know one way or the other if there was any real choice involved, but simply considering the possibility helps clarify the real-world choices I face each day. How shall I choose to live right now? Just imagining that perhaps I chose this whole existence adds mystery and excitement to my daily choices. It also allows me to find meaning in every experience, no matter how painful or unpleasant. Could there be a reason I might have chosen to experience pain? To learn a valuable lesson perhaps? To learn compassion for others who must endure the same thing? To sweeten the pleasure on the other side? What if you actually chose to incarnate for a lifetime as a human being? Why do you think you may have done that? To learn something? To change the world in some way? For fun? To punish yourself? To make a lot of money?

Do you think there’s a reason you’re here, or is your whole life just an accident?