Jessica Ste Michelle, a valued and awe-inspiring friend, is an Intimacy Coach with an innate ability to make her clients feel seen without judgment. She has been a guiding light representing the power of strength and courage, and encouraging EVERYONE to do what lights them up.

She just sent me this transcript of our interview…In Joy.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Marie Ruzicka calls herself a Catalyst for Joy. She and I have known each other since right before “The Time of Corona,” as she’s calls it, these past 4+ years. Marie is the epitome of both “Catalyst” and “Joy” and have been both for me many many many times.

She’s a Best Selling Author with a Best Selling Hit Book which has spent 26 weeks on the New York Time’s Best Sellers list (and there’s a wonderful story about that in her book). There’s no stopping the ripple effects that are happening since this book was launched into the aethers…all in service to transforming our current way of thinking.

Recently I caught up with Marie, and later her adorable family (one of the many captivating stories from her book) on the beautiful Coast of Oregon with her dog Isa, who loves carrying pieces of driftwood while trotting besides us…until the seagulls playfully ask for a bit of a chase.

Note: Right on Q…as we began our interview, the fog dramatically rolls out unveiling the most perfect sun-shiny chilly October day in 2024. Marie’s Birthday in fact, October 23rd, and what a gift it is to be taking in this glorious place…the sights and smells and sounds of the ocean while connecting in person with my amazing friend.

Even though there is a chill in the air, she and I decide it is preferable to walk the beach here on the central Oregon Coast, the sound of the waves as the background of our symphony…with her 17 year old bonus grandson as our sound and cameraman.

After circling up for a power-filled prayer and long lovely hugs, in our coziest and most adorable jackets and hats, bundled up and barefoot, the three of us ventured on the sand. There was not a soul in sight…and being keenly watched by our beloved men, promising they would have the best hot coco on the coast ready for our return.

Here are some excerpts from my time connecting with my exquisite friend, Marie Ruzicka:

As we were doing sound checks, Marie regales us by quoting from the 2nd scroll of The Greatest Salesman while looking out to the ocean:

Is it not so that the birds, the wind, the sea and all of nature speaks with the music of praise for our Creator? Cannot I speak with the same music to his children? Henceforth I remember this secret and my life is forever changed.

Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World. p.60

I did my sound check. We both got a thumbs up, so let’s begin…

Jessica: “I’ve got to ask, I know you are a good 20 years my senior, my friend, yet you look younger and glowing each time I see you. What has that adventure been like?”

Marie: “Ooo…adventure…I like the way you asked that. When I was in my 20s, I went to an early days Louise Hay seminar. I was in the nose bleed section of a packed house where one of the speakers seemed to look right at me as I’m sitting in the backest back row and seemingly said right to me, “We only grow old because we watch others grow old.”

This might sound weird, AND…It was as if that was me reminding myself of that fact…that there might be another option. I immediately made a vow to choose youthful ways of thinking as a direction for my life.

True Health is a clear focus in this adventure of mine. My belief is that I don’t have to go down the societal path of decrepitude, a culture which wants to spell us into oldness long before our time.

I simply keep choosing health. Healthy thoughts, healthy attitude. I want to be clear, I don’t ask anyone to do my same choices. These choices simply are the ones I’ve chosen for myself. So far…so wonderful.”

Jessica: “And I’m sure this glowing also comes from the fact that there is an amazing man, who is clearly in love with every part of you, waiting for us back at the restaurant.”

Marie: (with a giggle) “You would definitely be correct about that.”

Jessica: “You seem so calm and peaceful with all this attention about the book.”

Marie: “First of all, I’m a pretty private person, and I’d only want someone I love and trust to share this moment with.”

(she slid her arm in mine for a moment) “So glad you said yes.”

We walk in silence for a bit, enjoying the unfolding scene of the waves, Isa bounding after the seagulls, and bringing back yet another piece of driftwood to carry…for now.

“It’s part of the sublime power of choosing that is such a big part of my book. Every. Single. Moment…I get to choose what direction I am taking and I have many years of practice.

Bottom-line, if I choose to make my life a masterpiece, I better be clear what that masterpiece looks like, while staying open and curious to the mysteries of what is beyond what I could possibly imagine.

That mysterious part is where the fun comes in…and the alchemy…mixed in with mystery. This masterpiece is what I desire to FEEL like. Right now, those 2 words…calm and peaceful…are exactly where I am and what I am feeling.

How the rest of the world sees me…is none of my business.

Last year I completed an amazing program called the Master Key Experience. Six months of deep diving into the world within (touching her heart with her mittened fingers). Among many things, each week we went through Charles Haanel’s The Master Key System. There is one part I love so much so, I’ve memorized this passage for posterity:

If either of us were building a home for ourselves, how careful we would be in regard to the plans; how we should study every detail; how we should watch the material and select only the best of everything; and yet how careless we are when it comes to building our Mental Home, which is infinitely more important than any physical home, as everything which can possibly enter into our lives depends upon the character of the material which enters into the construction of our Mental Home.

Charles Haanel, The Master Key System, Part 5:9

Jessica: “Oh wow yes. Keeping the mental palace clean and clear, that is an ever present adventure. I love in your book when you talk about ‘staying in your lane.’”

Marie: “Ah…Yes. There is so much to that subject, (giggle) maybe I should have called the book that.

There was an assignment during this course where you were not allowed to state your opinion in any way, under any circumstances what-so-ever, unless you were asked specifically for said opinion. That assignment was a game changer for me. Truly. I felt I walked through a portal into another dimension.

I kept witnessing the dawn of a new person each time my friends or acquaintances came up with their own answer from within. Sometimes on the spot, sometimes weeks later, but on their own, instead of me shoving my opinion down their throat, stopping their journey for the easy fix.

In Napoleon Hill’s book Outwitting the Devil, unsolicited opinions are one of the ways the Devil delights in both sides of the coin. The person giving the unsolicited opinion’s ego is vomiting all over, not allowing the mysterious mind that never sleeps in that other person to take that next important step to work out whatever is going on.

Then, the person receiving the unsolicited opinion does not have the opportunity to come up with the answer from that place within, creating internal strife that leads to indecisiveness or ‘drifting’ as Hill calls it. Evil has been thriving in the world of unsolicited opinions for centuries.”

As we walk to my favorite cove, some glorious person designed and made a labyrinth in the sand (ah yes, labyrinths, yet another magnificent part of Marie’s book) and I asked Marie my final question…for this round:

Jessica: “If you could say something to your younger self, what would it be?”

Marie: “mmmmm…I would look my younger self and simply take in her soft lovey features and bright shining eyes. Yes, I would be taken away by her emerging beauty that she has yet to discover and want to swim in her sensational innocence until there were no more stars.

(Takes a long slow breath), I would not for a moment want to break the silence between us with words, words that can be misconstrued. I would simply shower her amazingness with love love and more more love.

Then, I would fall on my knees and thank her. Thank her for following her highest fun, even when she was full of fear. Thank her for asking for what she wanted and being a manifesting machine.

What a manifesto she created in that final 2 years of high school. Starting with going to the local community college and swan diving into the world of theatre, all while being profoundly introverted.

Having parents say that they could not afford to help for college and that momentous moment unleashed a boldness that was absolutely, unequivocally not possible up to that point…and delights me every time I think about it.

My high school counselor was my partner in this exhilarating magickal time. She found the possibilities of different schools and where I needed to go to find the dollars through scholarships and grants. Then, on purpose, my visionary younger self chose a Liberal Arts College here in Oregon that none of my other classmates were heading to and found the perfect pilgrimage to start a new life.

Wow! There would be so so many tears of joy, so many tears of Thank you…Thank you…Thank you. And thanking God for his and her hand in creating all of this.”

Arm in arm Marie and I walk back to the restaurant where we started, meeting up with our amazing Beloveds who have been watching us from the warmth of the deck under the heat lamps.

They watched us with so much love it was palpable while holding space that this golden interview was going to change worlds, (and by the way part 2 on this interview tells the story of meeting our Beloveds). Oh yes, with piping hot coco awaiting our return.

And I gotta say, along with this relationship Marie and her love have co-created, am also overjoyed witnessing his relationship with his grandson, so full of mutual respect and esteem.

After more hugs and laughter, as we were parting, Marie looked at me….grabbed both my hands in hers, and said…with a glimmer of Haanel’s opus:

Marie: “You will see, you must see, that no matter what is happening in our outside world, we are at the dawn of a new day of possibilities that are so wonderful, so fascinating, so limitless as to be a movie of epic epic proportions. Any soul with a knowledge of the power of our thoughts, has an inconceivable advantage over the multitudes. And the crazy thrilling part is that one soul in their power…is more influential than billions who are not.”

With another round of hugs, we were about to part ways, as Isa scampers back to me, made sure that I took the piece of driftwood, reminding me of yet another part of Marie’s book, and another very cool question I have for round two…

If you want to hear the rest of the interview you’ll have to wait, for now…