Author Archives: Marion Lorence

About Marion Lorence

Marion Lorence became the senior property portfolio web developer for Great Lakes Management Company whose focus on rental properties for the 55+ adult populations put her in touch with the needs of her peers. When the opportunity to become an on site property manager opened up at Glendale Place in Savage, Minnesota, Marion applied and was hired on to become the leadership face of this distinctive and welcoming apartment home community. Glendale Place is the ideal choice for active adults who value their independence Connections with the local business community though the area Chamber of Commerce put Marion in touch with new people and fresh ideas. Writing a blog under the name Minnesota Marion about ideas as well as life experiences that are relevant to a group of “Boomer” peers was a natural way to market a lovely effortless residential atmosphere that Marion now calls home. Glendale Place in Savage, Minnesota has been the best move yet! It's HOME...

Kindness — A Good Rule

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Decide to treat all your neighbors with consideration and respect. Be a resident ‘ambassadors’ to help welcome newcomers as they transition into the community. Aspire to live by the Golden Rule.

Decide to treat all your neigh­bors with con­sid­er­a­tion and respect. Be a res­i­dent ‘ambas­sadors’ to help wel­come new­com­ers as they tran­si­tion into the com­mu­nity.
Aspire to live by the Golden Rule.

Today we often read about cyber bul­lies among young peo­ple, but bul­ly­ing also plagues seniors.  The behav­ior being ref­er­enced would be inci­dents of name-calling, bossy behav­ior, loud argu­ments, snubs and aggression.

Causes and strate­gies
Fear can be one rea­son for bul­ly­ing, says Renee Garfinkel, a Wash­ing­ton, D.C.-based psy­chol­o­gist who spe­cial­izes in aging issues, but it’s also “that human phe­nom­e­non of the strong pick­ing on the weak. It’s not a func­tion of aging. It’s a func­tion of pathol­ogy.” Con­tinue read­ing →

Gambling

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Gambling destroys the work ethic. The core values of the work ethic are all part of the free enterprise system. Gambling corrupts these values and replaces them with greed and selfishness. Rather than depending upon hard work, gamblers depend instead upon luck and chance.

Gam­bling destroys the work ethic. The core val­ues of the work ethic are all part of the free enter­prise sys­tem. Gam­bling cor­rupts these val­ues and replaces them with greed and self­ish­ness. Rather than depend­ing upon hard work, gam­blers depend instead upon luck and chance.

“I hate casi­nos!” was my not at all wimpy com­ment while my coworker replied in like man­ner….. “I love casi­nos!”  We were not devel­op­ing an argu­ment, but clearly our opin­ions were far apart when it came to the issue of gambling.

It got me think­ing……….  Why am I so opposed to gambling?

Go to any casino and you’ll see many gray heads at the slot machines and black­jack tables. Gam­bling has become a pop­u­lar pas­time for seniors who often have time to spare and holes in their lives to fill. Gam­bling, like many things in life, can become addic­tive and seniors who are bored or lonely may be more vul­ner­a­ble to addic­tive behav­iors. Con­tinue read­ing →

The God Walk

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Here’s the thing… It is never too late to develop a personal walk with God and old age is as good a time as any to begin.

Here’s the thing… It is never too late to develop a per­sonal walk with God and old age is as good a time as any to begin.

I grew up in the early 50’s and my par­ents like many of their friends believed in mak­ing it a prac­tice to attend church as a fam­ily.  For them, church was a core item in our home and not an adden­dum that would be dis­carded by other dis­trac­tions.  Quite the oppo­site… Other dis­trac­tions were dis­carded or never con­sid­ered on the basis of what they were learn­ing and becom­ing as a result of their devo­tion to per­sonal growth in their faith walk with God. Con­tinue read­ing →

Defensive Strategy

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Sometimes it is necessary to “go into the game fighting” so to speak, but most of the time the issue at hand I not a big deal.

Some­times it is nec­es­sary to “go into the game fight­ing” so to speak, but most of the time the issue at hand I not a big deal.

Foot­ball sea­son in here and grand­par­ents are often mak­ing sure they are in the stands to cheer for the young peo­ple who are “in the game”.

As aging peo­ple, liv­ing in close prox­im­ity to a vari­ety of peo­ple, we need to choose a posi­tion as well in the games of life that play out all around us each day.   We can choose to play “defen­sively” when an offen­sive com­ment or encounter is hurled our way, seem­ingly from out of nowhere. Con­tinue read­ing →

Readers Theatre

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My hope is that we can produce a program that will serve as our holiday entertainment at Christmas time. The story I am hoping to use will of course be, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

My hope is that we can pro­duce a pro­gram that will serve as our hol­i­day enter­tain­ment at Christ­mas time. The story I am hop­ing to use will of course be, A Christ­mas Carol by Charles Dickens.

“Read­ers The­atre” is an idea that I want to intro­duce as a new kind of com­mu­nity enjoy­ment to the friends and neigh­bors here at Glen­dale Place.

Read­ers The­atre con­nects oral read­ing, lit­er­a­ture, and drama in a group set­ting. Using only voices and facial expres­sions, each reader inter­prets the emo­tions, beliefs, atti­tudes, and motives of the char­ac­ters in a story. A nar­ra­tor con­veys the story’s set­ting and action and pro­vides the com­men­tary nec­es­sary for tran­si­tion between scenes. Con­tinue read­ing →

Smile Anyway!

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Smiling is a good idea for lots of reasons. A sunny disposition and demeanor favorably colors the interactions of my days for the most part… but not every time.

Smil­ing is a good idea for lots of rea­sons. A sunny dis­po­si­tion and demeanor favor­ably col­ors the inter­ac­tions of my days for the most part… but not every time.

“Hi Smi­ley” was the greet­ing I recently received from a busi­ness asso­ciate while attend­ing a lovely event in glam­orous sur­round­ings.  It was early in the day and the mood was fes­tive and pleas­ant.  It was inter­est­ing to think about the notion that I must come across as a per­son who is smil­ing and cheer­ful a good bit of the time.  As I con­sid­ered this thought, the words to a song taught to me by my par­ents came to mind.

Let the sun­shine in, face it with a grin.
Smil­ers never lose, and frown­ers never win,
So let the sun­shine in, face it with a grin.
Open up your heart and let the sun­shine in. Con­tinue read­ing →

Grow Some Money

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I like working and having a job puts me in touch with some interesting people. There are jobs for those who are willing to put their passion and experience to good use.

I like work­ing and hav­ing a job puts me in touch with some inter­est­ing peo­ple. There are jobs for those who are will­ing to put their pas­sion and expe­ri­ence to good use.

I am hear­ing from some of my peers that they are def­i­nitely not liv­ing the com­fort­able retire­ment lifestyle they always imag­ined because the needed money is just not there.  Com­pli­cat­ing mat­ters, things keep get­ting more expen­sive, while incomes remains fixed. Something’s got to give.

The solu­tions are that same as they have always been.  Cut spend­ing and increase income at the same time. Con­tinue read­ing →

Uninvited Knock

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I want everyone to VOTE!

I want every­one to VOTE!

I am all for vot­ing and I make it my per­sonal busi­ness to find out about the peo­ple who are run­ning for office and the issues that are going to be decided by the vot­ers.  As the res­i­dent man­ager of a large apart­ment com­plex, I include voter infor­ma­tion regard­ing reg­is­tra­tion and our pol­ing loca­tion for res­i­dents in my newslet­ter that goes out to the peo­ple who live in my com­mu­nity here at Glen­dale Place.  I want every­one to VOTE!

Deal­ing with the cam­paigns how­ever, has turned out to be a huge dis­ap­point­ment.  Con­tinue read­ing →

Eagle Project

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Everything about scouting is handled by volunteers, and the Scouts working on these projects are young developing future leaders of the community.

Every­thing about scout­ing is han­dled by vol­un­teers, and the Scouts work­ing on these projects are young devel­op­ing future lead­ers of the community.

This week I met with a young man who is work­ing to become and Eagle Scout.  This soon to be 10th grader is inter­ested in pur­su­ing an Eagle Project, which I have learned is no small undertaking.

A qual­ity Eagle project takes time.  The Scout must do all pre-planning, design, any fundrais­ing, and go through a multi-step review process with the end user of his work, prop­erty own­ers, his scout troop and the scout­ing dis­trict. Most Scouts plan 6–9 months for an Eagle Project, tak­ing it from a con­cept to a fully fledged plan, get­ting it reviewed (which often involves changes), reviewed again until it is fully ready, and then to imple­men­ta­tion. Con­tinue read­ing →

The Financial Pinch

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Feeling the financial “pinch”? If so, you have lots of company.

Here’s the thing… we all have some money, but that is not the only “spend­able” thing we have to work with.

Feel­ing the finan­cial “pinch”?  If so, you have lots of com­pany.  When you start talk­ing to peo­ple there is never any short­age of com­plaints and the old adage if often heard, “The money ran out before the month.”  We’ve all been there.

I recently heard of a cost cut­ting mea­sure that is work­ing like a charm for some of my elderly friends.  Granted, these folks are already liv­ing in a finan­cially afford­able apart­ment home, hav­ing left the big expen­sive set­ting behind as their chil­dren grew up and estab­lished their own fam­i­lies, but the “pinch” is still felt, even by these care­ful proac­tive peo­ple. Con­tinue read­ing →