Running with Minty: Why Your Origin Story Matters More Than Your Destination

I was tired—the kind of soul-deep exhaustion that I know you truly understand. I wanted a hotel where I didn’t have to cook, a sparkling pool to drown out the noise of work/activism, and a passport stamp that said "escape.”

I had my sights set on Aruba, but the geopolitical energy of Venezuelan shores felt too close. I looked at Florida—wasn’t feeling it. I looked at California—the costs were killing me. I was chasing a distraction, but the universe had a detour in mind.

When my husband suggested the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I didn’t realize I was trading a lounge chair for a legacy. I wasn’t going to a resort; I was going to the birthplace of Araminta Ross. Every superhero has an origin story, and as I drove toward the marshy land that forged the woman we eventually called Harriet Tubman, I realized I didn’t need to escape my life—I needed to remember the "Minty" in me who was built to survive it.

The "Lent Out" Lesson: Mapping the Hard Places

Before she was the "Moses of her people," she was Minty. And Minty was "lent out."

Araminta Ross, or Minty as she was called was sent to work for other enslavers, often in cruel and draining environments. In fact, she was so good at it, she began lending herself out, and paid her enslaver to allow her to have this “workflow.” But there was a hidden strategy in her suffering. Being "lent out" allowed her to know the land. She walked it by day and memorized it by night. She learned the patterns of the tides and the language of the woods while she was under someone else's roof, or moving between sites. Though enslaved, she could still move freely through this arrangement.

For modern leaders, we often feel "lent out" to organizations or roles that drain us. We feel like we are wasting our gifts in toxic soil. But in the framework of growth, these are reconnaissance missions. Minty didn't just survive being lent out; she used that time to learn the map of the country so she could eventually lead others to freedom.

The Internal Authority Shift: What is your current "hard placement" teaching you about the land? You aren't just working; you are data-collecting for your own liberation.

The Two-Pound Weight: The Catalyst for Post-Traumatic Growth

I stood outside the small shack of a country general store in Dorchester County, acknowledging the moment a two-pound metal weight cracked Minty’s skull. This injury caused what we now recognize as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. She lived the rest of her life with pain, seizures, and sudden sleeping spells (narcolepsy).

Common wisdom tells us to "bounce back" from trauma—to return to who we were before the hit. But Minty didn't bounce back; she bounced forward. This is the essence of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG).

PTG is the life altering transformation that occurs through the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. It isn't just resilience; it is a radical re-authoring of one's identity across five specific domains that Harriet mastered:

1. New Possibilities: The injury shattered her "old" life, making room for a vision of a liberated future.
2. Personal Strength: She developed a "sure-footedness" that reduced her fear of the very systems that tried to break her.
3. Spiritual Change: The "crack" of the two pound weight let the light in, giving her the visions and dreams she used to navigate the Underground Railroad.
4. Relationships: She shifted from individual survival to communal liberation, moving 70 friends and family to freedom. She lent herself out for her communities’ freedom.
5. Appreciation for Life: Her life became a masterclass in resourcefulness—valuing every moment and every marsh as a tool for the mission.

By the Numbers: The Data of Conviction

To see the land she walked is to realize that her success wasn't magic—it was PTG in action.

• 2 lbs: The weight that opened her spirit, when it cracked her skull
• 13 trips: The proof of her newfound "Personal Strength." Minty ain’t scared, she’ll come back… again and again.
• 700+ souls: The "New Possibilities" she created for her loved ones, as well as the liberated in the 1863 Combahee Ferry Raid in South Carolina.

She was the ultimate influencer. She was a data collector, a nurse, a spy, and a plan disseminator. She was "birthed" in March 1822, but I felt her birthed in me the day I stood in her "neck of the woods" and collected grass clippings from her first home.

A Somatic Ritual for the "First & Only"

I realized that grounding yourself isn't just a therapeutic buzzword. It’s a survival tactic. I literally touched the earth she touched. I smelled the salt in the air she breathed. Felt the sun, the rain, the wind. As I drove the roads she walked and looked at the first home she shared with her parents, Rit and Ben, I did something that felt both strange and necessary: I collected grass clippings from the site. As if collecting this grass would give me knowledge, courage, and healing that my body didn’t know it needed. I wanted to take everyone who ever worked this land home with me. I wanted to take the land itself to freedom. I wanted to take the land that was soaked in the blood, sweat, tears and prayers of the stolen souls, to a hush harbor as well as I could. I usually collect rocks, but this was an old plantation. The rocks were removed by our ancestors a long time ago.

If you are feeling lost in your leadership, I invite you to find your own "March 1822" ritual. Stop looking for the "Aruba" escape and start looking for the "Minty" endurance. In therapy, we often talk about the "cracks" in our history. Harriet Tubman teaches us that we don't heal to go back to normal. We heal to develop the "visions and dreams" necessary to create freedom for our community. Your scars aren't your weaknesses; they are the places where your conviction was forged.

Want help with your own Post-Traumatic Growth?

The journey from "Minty" to your own version of "Harriet" requires a safe space to ground yourself and a partner to help you read the map.

Schedule a conversation with us today: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ0-aC90NTrmWZ-5BCV0IWh0kDCA6IgYE-N_KLYkQ1J2kM03Drr0BcErh8S25VHMOXZWU3TfiAEO.

Let’s get free together.

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