My Birthday at 55 🎂

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The Seed of Time

When you’re young, time seems limitless…

The idea of becoming an adult, aging, dying… rarely crosses a child’s mind. I was eleven when my great-grandmother was no longer living in the home I loved visiting each summer. That year, we saw her in a convalescent home. As I hugged her for what would be the last time, she placed her hands on my cheeks and whispered, “Never get old.” It was the first time I realized aging would happen to me too.

When I got home, I told my mother, “I don’t want to celebrate any more birthdays. I don’t want to grow old. I’m going to stop it from happening.” That moment planted a seed - a desire to stay youthful, resilient, and vibrant. Decades later, I see how that seed grew into a life rooted in intention, curiosity, and grace.

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Crossing the Threshold

Time moved on. Birthdays came and went. I became a teenager trying to fit in, then a twenty-something figuring out how to pay bills and find my way.My thirties flew by. In my forties I believed I’d met the love of my life and got married. And now, at 55, I find myself reflecting on the journey behind me and the possibilities ahead. This birthday feels different. It’s not just a milestone - it’s a threshold.

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Loss, Grief, and Awakening

Just before I turned 49, my husband had passed away, and grief cracked me open. The turmoil that was brewing, the reality his family denied came to a head. Lies, untruths, and deception came to the forefront. And just a few months after, NYC turned sideways with COVID breaking relationships and connections all around me. All of it reshaped how I celebrated, connected, and envisioned the future. But in that breaking, something beautiful emerged - a deeper connection to myself, to nature, and to the quiet wisdom that I’ve learned lives in stillness.

I moved to Florida to be closer to the ocean where I always found myself more grounded and calm. I planted a garden to heal my heart and found a rhythm that matched my own. 

New friends, new love, new purpose. 

I also moved my mother to an independent living community just a mile away. It was a tough choice, but better for her to live near me than remain in New York. Now, as she turns 85, she often says she doesn’t want to get any older. Somehow it mirrors my notion from so many decades ago. Seeing most of her life behind her, she reminds me daily that these moments together are precious. My mom’s mental health has always been a struggle in our relationship, yet I love her deeply. I only have one mama. She is a living reminder that life is a gift no matter the struggle, and we should savor every second of it. She has taught me to always come from a place of love. I share that message often.

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Closing One Chapter, Opening Another

This year, I closed my private practice of 25 years in New York City.Most people don’t know that I wrote my first book in a tiny cubbyhole-like space that used to be a kitchen. In that studio apartment, I also helped transform thousands of lives.The many fitness and health clubs where I taught MELT also became spaces of profound change.That chapter is now complete, and with its closing, a new one begins. I feel like I’m writing a new book - literally and figuratively. New products, new instructor trainings, more books, and more ways to share what I’ve learned are emerging. 

At 55, I fully embrace that this is my life’s purpose.

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Lessons in Letting Go

I look back and I do see struggles, losses, and lessons. Each one shaped me. I also reflect on the past and see a lot of courage, transformation, and opportunities. In my twenties, I tried to live up to expectations I could never meet, especially my father’s. I always wanted my father to say “I’m so proud of you” but those words never came. 

Now, I choose meaning over approval. I’ve traded rigidity for rhythm, control for curiosity, and urgency for understanding.

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Fascia, Frequency, and Flow

Over the past thirty years, I’ve devoted myself to studying the body, fascia, and healing modalities. I am a lifelong student, always learning and sharing. What began as a personal quest to stay youthful and vibrant evolved into a global movement. Through education, experimentation, and relentless curiosity, I’ve built a community of tens of thousands - practitioners, instructors, seekers - who share a language of self-care and embodied wisdom.

From living rooms to lecture halls, intimate workshops to international conferences, I’ve witnessed transformation. Not just in posture or pain relief, but in how people reclaim their stories and sense of possibility. MELT became more than a method. It became a mirror reflecting the power of intention and connection.

With this new collaboration to share the Fascia Hydrator with our dedicated MELT community, I now help others feel their own frequency - just as I’ve always felt it in trees, and when I place my hands on someone. That resonance, that subtle vibration, is a bridge between body and spirit - relinking heart and soul. It’s a gift I’ve carried since childhood, and now I can share it in a tangible way.

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Listening Differently

I listen differently now. Not just to words, but to the energy beneath them. The quiet “I can’t” that lives in the body. The inherited beliefs that shape my client’s choices. The longing for ease. Maybe because I’ve rewritten a few of my own stories, I can hold space for others to do the same.

I’ve learned that strength isn’t just independence - it’s allowing support.

I used to think asking for help meant I wasn’t good enough to do things myself. That belief, passed down from my father, taught me self-reliance. But now I know that letting people in is also an act of love. 

Compassion isn’t just something we give - it’s something someone like me must practice receiving. And, in that receiving, we connect more deeply to everyone, everything, all the time.

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Threads of Gratitude

As I sit by the ocean, meditate in quiet, and tend to my plant oasis, I feel the connections between nature and fascia, youth and wisdom, solitude and community. These threads have always been there. Now, I see how they’ve been woven into something far greater than myself.

I am deeply grateful for the friends, family, mentors, MELT team, and the global community of MELTers who reflect the love I’ve tried to share. To those who read this blog, who connect through our social channels, our community platforms, and MELT on Demand from my heart and soul, I say, thank you. You are part of this journey and many of you have shaped the path.

 

At 55, I don’t just celebrate another birthday. I celebrate a life lived with purpose, a legacy still unfolding, and a future full of grace

 

"The best is yet to come."

With love and deep gratitude,

Sue 💙