Pee Wee and I work side by side. We wrap and ship bonsai pots from a barn here at the monastery. I am white, Pee Wee is black. We are the about the same age.

One day I asked Pee Wee what it was like growing up here in Georgia. We were stuffing paper into pots to cushion them. He thought and smiled and told me some things. He picked cotton for a dollar a bag in nearby fields. He was paid by the weight of each bag. He would dampen the cotton with water to make it heavier. He told me that the cotton cut his hands and that he did not ever wear gloves because they would have slowed down the picking too much. He said he picked fast and got used to the cuts. But the sun was real hot and he said that was bad. He laughed when he said that he and his friends would run and hide when the school bus full of white kids passed the cotton field, because if they saw them they would laugh at them. I listened and as I did so I thought as to how I was probably on a beach with my parents and brothers and sisters while a thousand miles away Pee Wee was picking cotton, or running and hiding in a field as the white kids passed.

He told me that in high school he was good in track. That is easy to see. He is of medium height and there is a quickness to him. He is in fine shape.

We have worked together for nearly two years and we talk a lot. We laugh a lot, too.

Last week there was a Georgia lottery drawing. The pot was one hundred and twenty million dollars. I asked Pee Wee if he bought any tickets and he said he did, that he and his friends Oscar and Willie bought a bunch of them. Pee Wee told me that if he won he would give lot of it away. He said he would sneak me a bundle. I told him to call me if he won. There was no call. So we laughed a lot the day after the drawing about hoped for fortunes that never come. And we then talked about how good it is to have things to look forward to.

Had he won that money, I may not have seen him again. I am sure he would have kept true to his promise to give me some money. But he would have probably moved on from this job, this area. What a loss that would have been to me. When I thought about that, I wanted to tell him. He has given me something many folks hope will arrive with winning a lottery.

Pee Wee has the happiness but not the money.

He has been blessed with the choicest pot of the Divine Lottery and has been so true to his promise as a winner. He shares with me from his happiness, from the living gold that is simply him.

So much that we pin our hopes on is ever elusive: wealth, success, all these things we are told we need to make us complete, fulfilled, satisfied. Many a life is spent chasing after the wrong things.

Grand stuff seems to have come to Pee Wee when he was standing quite still. It fell into Pee Wee's life and he took it to heart. And like the track star that he was, he runs with it, gold spilling from his pockets when he laughs, diamonds swirling in the air all about him when he talks of God, silver in my hand when he takes mine in his and wishes me well.

It's a hot day. Real hot. But the times are good with Pee Wee. Real good.

Fr. Behrens books can be purchased from The Abbey Store. (also soon from Bonsaimonk's e-store!)