“An Empty Eye, a Full Eye” — Palestinian-Jordanian Dialect Every time Samar visited her friend, she would come home with a new request. One day, she came home and said to her husband: — Did you see Rana’s house? She got new sofas. He said: — May she enjoy them. She replied: — And our sofas are still old. A week later, her husband bought her new sofas. She was happy with them on the first day. But two days later, she went to visit her sister, and when she came back, she said: — My sister got a new table. Her husband looked at her and said: — What do you want now? — Nothing… It’s just that her table is nicer than ours. After a while, he bought her a new table, a new phone, and then a new washing machine. Every time, she would be happy with the new things for a little while, and then she would start looking at what other people had. One day, she was sitting with her mother when she saw their neighbor coming in carrying a bag full of things. Samar said: — She must have bought something new. Her mother said: — My daughter, you already have almost everything. A house, furniture, a phone, and a car… What more do you need? She replied: — I need to be like everyone else. Her mother was surprised. — Like who? Everyone has what they have, and you have what you have. Then she told her: — Your problem isn’t money or possessions… your problem is that your eye is empty. Samar fell silent. Her mother continued: — An empty eye will keep looking at what it doesn’t have, no matter how much you give it. But a full eye sees the blessings it already has and is grateful for them. Samar kept thinking about what her mother had said. When she got home, she walked into the living room and looked around. She saw the new sofas, the TV, the carpet, and the tidy kitchen. Then she laughed and said: — My mother is right… All this time, I was looking at what other people had and never noticed what I had. From that day on, whenever she saw someone with something better than hers, she would say: — May they enjoy it… Thank God, my eye is full. And in the neighborhood, they started describing someone who, no matter how much they had or how much they got, was always looking at what others had by saying: “Their eye is empty.” As for someone who is content, happy with what they have, and appreciates its value, they say: “Their eye is full.”