The danger in getting involved

 Since we moved to the Fort Carson area, I have mostly kept my distance from family groups and just getting involved in general in anything that required lots of human interaction.  After years of volunteering, I honestly was tired and worn out.  

I still volunteered but it was a little more distant and intentionally staying disconnected from the elements where I volunteered.  Then nine months ago I was asked by a friend from church to make a key fob in memory of a fallen K9 for her daughter, who is a deputy in the local sheriffs department.

It wasn't long before I was receiving more messages about those fobs, as well as a little bit of a startle when another deputy messaged my business page asking for me to call him.  As a friend of the handler of the fallen K9, this deputy was verifying the intentions behind the unintentional fundraiser.  

Fast forward and in the last nine months, I've found myself connected to our local officers in a different way than I ever have been.  From being invited into a group for local law enforcement families to getting to know some of the officers and families, I have seen a glimpse into the lives of those who wear the badge and the families that stand behind them.  

In that same time frame, our community has seen the loss of K9 Jinx, Deputy Andrew Peery and just this week, Officer Julian Becerra.  The community has mourned these losses for the community servants and heroes that they were, but as the outside community - we can sympathize for that Blue Line family, but we will never fully understand the pain they endure in those losses.

This is much the same as the outside viewpoint of the military life, but the difference is that these individuals sacrificed right here in the communities where their families live.  As the events for each of these losses have unfolded, I see those interviewed on the news, those who had an interaction with that individual, but on the backside - it's different.  

The fact is that nine months ago, I should have just stitched some things and moved on, but I had a door opened to a community that I have seen the true blue meaning of family, the joy in the everyday, the pain of not feeling a community supporting you even when you send your loved one out to protect it everyday, the heart of endless caring this 'family' has and heartbreaking devastation of losing someone. 

Today my boys and I wore blue, today we sat behind a police cruiser that's a temporary memorial outside our community police station and we prayed and we cried for an officer gone too soon and a 'family' who is hurting.  I guess my point in all this, is that getting involved is dangerous, being connected means putting yourself out there, but it also means seeing who people are behind an overarching umbrella of a job position.