By Troy Headrick

A little more than a week ago, I published a piece about an extraordinary evening. Last night, hoping to have a similar experience, I carried my chair outside again and sat. The conditions were similar to what they had been a week earlier, so I had great expectations.

I sat for a good long while, probably forty-five minutes or so. This time, though, I felt no such happiness. In fact, I felt restless and jittery and, eventually, frustrated. Toward the end of my stay, I noticed something interesting. I discovered that my mind was “chattering.” I was thinking about the upcoming weekend and about my job and how I’d recently been given a lot more responsibility. You name it, I was thinking about it. This discovery prompted me to realize that one prerequisite for happiness is the ability to empty the mind and be present in…