Kwan Yin

For the past week I've been living, breathing and eating Kwan Yin.
Not a bad thing, of course - I could be doing much worse things than spending hours absorbing the lore of the embodiment of compassion and mercy. I wonder if it has had any flow-on effects in my life?
The reason for this absorption is that I'm giving a talk tonight at the Swedenborg Association on the history of Kwan Yin and her place in popular religious culture. I have always been a fan of the Goddess of Mercy, ever since I first travelled to Vietnam as a young man and decided that she was to be my patron saint.
Naturally, Kwan Yin is everywhere in Vietnam - here is a pic of some nuns I know at Binh Chanh with the Kwan Yin statue in the garden in front of their temple. She is a source of inspiration for everyone, and people turn to her in times of need.