Mary Anne Moll writes from the city of Manila in the Philippines. She is an author and full time writer in addition to keeping the blog. She is also a mom, a writer, a watcher and a reader, and a beautiful woman with a sense of poetic grace that few I’ve come across have exhibited so wonderfully.
Mary Anne’s blog “Sensibilities” began in December of 2005 with a retrospective of the year that passed. It is a standard blogger template with easy to navigate archives and lists on the sidebar of what she currently is reading and working on, and links to the publications she’s been featured in as well as the books she has written.
The blog progresses through the year 2006 and so far into 2007 with entries outlining where she is in writing and in love, where she is as a parent to her son, and her involvement with the Philippine National Police Special Action Force Training School, or Sureshock… which I found incredibly interesting. There are extensive lists of what she is reading, digesting, consuming in literature, and small personal entries about the simplest things, like the gift of good penmanship.
My favorite entry by far was when she cleaned out her car.
http://maryannemoll.blogspot.com/2007/05/two-year-baggage.html
and it made me really consider what we carry around with us in our proverbial trunks in memory.
Her entries are accentuated beautifully by photos, some of her own and some from other sources and as a writer I noted she is very VERY careful and makes sure photo credit is given for each shot, a touch I found refreshing and appreciated in this world of blogs that never credit sources. Nicely done. A lot of the photos are of the PNP Special Action Force because she’s focused on writing for the Force & Valor magazine. Some are just of Manila or Bicol. My favorite pictures were of her mother’s bougainvilleas who lost their blooms all through the house in the December 2006 entry.
I read each and every entry over the course of two days. There were huge spans of silence, and periods of frenzied postings where Mary Anne pours out her heart and soul. In July of this year (2007) she shut down the blog when the man in her life became the man no longer in her life, stating that “Under the weight of so many unanswered questions, and still reeling from the impact of disappointment and loss, I am unable to make sense of things.” The break in blogging seems to have done her well, and we all know that when faced with situations that sometimes lack words, it is okay to not speak. It is truly okay to put the hands away from the keyboard and embrace another part of life for just a little while.
Within three weeks she phoenixed back and has written a few new entries, none of which deal too in depth with her relationship in full but shed light on who she is, from her new glasses to the “Something about me challenge” that she takes to write about. She thanks those who have rallied around her in her time of sadness, and it seems that she’ll be okay. I’m sure she’ll be okay.
I enjoyed Mary Anne’s blog greatly, and will revisit for certain. I give her blog a rating of 4, and look forward to more from Ms. Moll in the future.
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