It feels like any moment now I will get hit by that lightning over there. I can feel it in the air, getting closer and closer. I predict the future, attract it towards me with my pending thoughts of doom. Shouldn't be doing that.

The bike trip back home is not even ten minutes, but all it takes is a split second. I know that. Huge and elaborate capillaries of light, sparkles really, are spreading out across the darkened sky as the rains falls like it has just begun and will never ever stop.

That's right when the bolt from heaven comes down in a wink and a flash, neatly striking the base of the tree trunk just to the right of me, a surgical swipe through the air.

What a tremendous BOOM it makes! The concussion and blistering heat blasts in my face. Shredded bark and broken twigs float down upon me and have this funny electrical burned-up smell to it, mixed with blue ozone.

I am now pedalling faster and faster towards the safety of my own home, and I can hear the huge tree falling to the ground with a tremendous triple crack and then a thumping crash. A distant echo of the lightning flash which struck it down not ten seconds before.

Nature can be brutal and wonderful at the same time. What are the chances of experiencing such a miracle and living through it to write about it later? Life goes on.