In this solo episode the Old Rucker kicks off a Recovery 101 discusses a practical, no-nonsense breakdown of communication, one of the most critical and most commonly botched tools in recovery and everyday life. Drawing from personal experience, leadership lessons, and recovery principles, he introduces the concept of “CUCUMU” (Clear, Complete, Mutual Understanding) and walks through real-world strategies like BLUF (bottom line up front), mirroring, closing the loop, managing ego, and avoiding ghosting or emotional reactions. Along the way, we tie communication directly to trust, accountability, and rebuilding relationships after hurts, habits, and hangups, emphasizing that recovery like effective communication requires patience, discipline, and consistent action. This episode delivers straightforward, actionable insights for anyone looking to improve relationships, strengthen recovery, and stop sabotaging conversations before they even start.

March 28: kicks off Arkansas Soberfest Golf and runs through October.

April 16-19: is an Arkansas AA Convention. This one is the 49^th Annual Springtime in the Ozarks, in Eureka Springs. No flier for that one so check out springtimeintheozarks.com.

June 20: Arkansas Soberfest Picnic at the VFW in Cabot, Arkansas

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Thought to Consider…

Swallowing your pride will not get you drunk.
To help each other, is to help ourselves.
Remember that we deal with alcohol – cunning, baffling, powerful!
The best things in life aren’t things.

AACRONYMS

N U T S = Not Using The Steps
F A I T H = Fear Ain’t In This House

Selfishness

Selfishness, self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. B

No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity. Quicksand stretched around me in all directions. I had met my match. I had been overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master.”

Fear

“Unreasonable fear that our instincts will not be satisfied drives us to covet the possessions of others, to lust for sex and power, to become angry when our instinctive demands are threatened, to be envious when the ambitions of others seem to be realized while ours are not. These fears are the termites that ceaselessly devour the foundations of whatever sort of life we try to build.”

3rd Step Prayer

“God, I offer myself to Thee to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”

Self-will

“No matter how one wishes to try, exactly how can he turn his own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is? A beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.”

Inventory

“We continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to look for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.”

Meetings

A “spiritual experience” to me meant attending meetings, seeing a group of people, all there for the purpose of helping each other; hearing the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions read at a meeting, and hearing the Lord’s Prayer, which in an A.A. meeting has such great meaning – “Thy will be done, not mine.” A spiritual awakening soon came to mean trying each day to be a little more thoughtful, more considerate, a little more courteous to those with whom I came in contact

In time, I learned that a Higher power – a faith that works under all conditions – is possible. Today this faith, plus the honesty, open-mindedness and willingness to work the Steps of the program, gives me the serenity that I seek. It works – it really does.

“Inner Voice”:

“Long before nagging and pressures from others concerning my excessive use of alcohol made any impression on me, the nagging voice of conscience my own inner voice of truth and right apprised me of the irrevocable fact that I had lost control of alcohol, that I was powerless. I know now that the inner voice was God, as I understand Him, speaking. For, as I had been taught from earliest memory and as A.A. has emphasized, God or good emanates from within each of us.”

Giving Without Demand

“Watch any A.A. of six months working with a Twelfth Step prospect. If the newcomer says, ‘To the devil with you,’ the twelfth-stepper only smiles and finds another alcoholic to help. He doesn’t feel frustrated or rejected. If his next drunk responds, and in turn starts to give love and attention to other sufferers, yet gives none back to him, the sponsor is happy about it anyway. He still doesn’t feel rejected; instead, he rejoices that his former prospect is sober and happy. And he well knows that his own life has been made richer, as an extra dividend of giving to another without any demand for a return.”

Dianne