“And Who Are You?” — Jeanne Chatigny, 1928-2017

Tim HursonRandom

Jeanne Chatigny, much-loved friend, mentor, and muse, died on April 11.

Since her first conference nearly 40 years ago, Jeanne became a familiar face at CPSI, CREA, Florida Creativity, and Mindcamp, presenting well-loved (and much-repeated) programs such as Maiden, Matron, Crone; Four Ways to Communicate; and The Art of Deferring Judgment. Her leadership style was strictly “lead from behind”: set the parameters and give participants the freedom to work their own way through the material. When asked how she learned her facilitation skills, she replied with a smile, “six kids and one bathroom.”

Conversations with Jeanne were never about Jeanne. They were about you, and they could be life-changing. Despite decades of learning and her mastery of the facilitation process — or perhaps because them — it was the relationship with the person with her right NOW that interested her most.
Who are you?
What have you been doing?
Tell me about yourself.
What do you think about this?
Why?

Whatever your answer, the door never closed: as the longtime leader of The Art of Deferring Judgment she always deferred judgments when she could, and questioned them when she couldn’t.

Should we have said that she “passed away”, “went beyond”, or “went ahead”? “Listen, sweetheart,” says the inner Jeanne-voice so many of us still hear, “tell it like it is.” She was 88.

Comments 9

  1. Thanks for the sweet and gentle thoughts and lovely tribute to Jeanne. It brought a peaceful smile to my face, like Jeanne used to do to me, when I was in her presence.
    In loving memory…
    Steve

  2. A delightful and wise woman who was kind and had time, seemingly, for anyone, despite knowing practically everyone.
    The world was better for her presence, and will be a less gracious place without her.

  3. Ah Jeanne. She enriched my life in so many ways. She gave me courage when I needed it, as well as energy, confidence and always peace. Her presence was a gift and her friendship a treasure. My world is emptier now.

  4. Goodbye Jeanne, dear. I loved to sit next to you at breakfast or dinner at Crea and have this quiet and meaningful exchange of views that you were so good at. I also remember celebrating your anniversary once on the last day of the conference: we sang and the whole group was in a ‘jeanny’ mood…
    Thank you for all that!

  5. Thank you so much for these sweet memories of our beloved Jeanne. When we co-facilitated The Art of deferring judgement, Jeanne taught me this quote from Rumy : “beyond the I am right and you are wrong there is a green prairie.I will meet you there.” That’s where I intend to meet her some day!

  6. Goodbye Jeanne, rest in peace. It was an Honour to know you and above all to speaker with you when we was at CREA. I loved you!

  7. All my thoughts from Japan for you Jeanne, you are a sunshine.
    Emptyness is not nothingness(空は無ならず), you always bright in our heart, like a beautiful endless blooming flower.

  8. I met Jeanne while participating in the ‘look again’ workshop at Mindcamp. I’ll never forget what she said to me on that first encounter. We were seated facing one another and we had to imagine the other person’s name, profession, family, in short, her whole life, just by observing this person closely.
    She asked me if she could feel my legs… I said ‘sure…’ (a bit surprised) and the next couple of minutes she was squeezing my thighs and knees. She looked at me very calmly and finally she said: You were and always will be a dancer! In my soul she felt a part of me that I had almost forgotten. Thank you Jeanne for reminding me of who I really am, and always will be, no matter what my body leads me to believe. Thank you for showing me the beauty of decay. No more fear of becoming a crone 🙂

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