I believe that our souls have job descriptions and we choose the basics. We all want to experience as much in human form and once we learn something, there really is no reason to “repeat”. (As Doctor Who says, I hate repeats). So, after our human body “dies” we go back, refresh and say, Okay! I got it this time (or maybe we review with a life counselor… not really sure how that works..) or, oops, dangit, I still missed the whole point, let’s try again.
And then there are people, who are born to specific other people and have possible (not defined) outcomes and experiences. These are only possibilities, but generally, choices can lead to the ultimate experienced our soul is desiring. That’s one place that choices come in. As a spirit wanting a human experience, we don’t always know what our experience is supposed to be, why we are here, etc. That’s part of the entire human experience. Hints and intuitions, but no black and white answers.

Now, to truly experience being human, we have to have it all. The pain, the joy, the hate, the suffering, the love, the passion, the fear. EVERYTHING.
Which includes surviving or dying in an earth quake. Having someone dear die in a tsunami, tornado, etc.

Our choices are not always from NOW, but from before we were “born”.

We also chose our current paths. We choose to live on a fault line. We choose to educate ourselves. We choose our friends, our jobs, what fills our souls.

One other thing we choose before we are “born” .. if our soul family, friend, lover, etc., needs to experience something.. a loss, pain, some of the tougher emotions, who better to help that experience than a soul member who loves us so much to suffer, to help us experience what our spirit longs to experience.

So, babies die. Best friends, lovers get cancer, suffer, die.

It’s part of life.
Choices come from many areas. We want to LIVE and in order to live, we must be willing to die. We perhaps choose our beginnings and endings prior to being born, but our other choices determine how we LIVE.

Addendum:

Apparently, a  year ago, almost to the day, I blogged this very same topic:
https://em.flinthillspagans.org/our-souls-journey/

How cool is that?