Lightning terrifies me.  I have been caught out  many times in storms even so.  The worst was last summer, biking through the gamelands when a classic storm cloud caught up to us, and we were in the midst of a roiling downpour, and bursts of thunder in surround coming instantly after the flash of light.  No need to count Mississippis, we were in it.   However we survived to look up the recommended safety procedure for the situation. Here it is: There are no safe places if you are caught outside.   Running like hell for a cover of shorter trees is probably better than lying in a wet ditch, but essentially what you are counting on is that your work on this earth is yet to be completed.  You think I would have learned from that experience, but later that summer I was caught out twice more- one in the middle of  lake in a canoe, the second above treeline.  I don't mean to do it, I'm really cautious, because I really hate it when it happens, yet I fully expect that this summer, I'll be in the same peril again.  Not sure what lesson to draw from it...still wondering what it all means.