when I go out there I see bees dining on the weeds and wildflowers
I can make a small change to improve the natural world
I am sorry if I tend to make oblique responses. My perception was that you were feeling disillusioned and frustrated with life, and I was hoping to provide a few pointers.
Funny you use that example. Just before I turned on the computer I was debating when to mow my yard - which it needs. There is one corner that hosts quite a bit of clover which my bee colony loves, but my neighbor's yard is full of it too and it grows back soon enough anyway. The general foraging range of honeybees is 2 miles / 3 kilometers and can be twice that if need be, so they will find something to eat even after you mow.
While I recommended that small things make a difference, it is also important to pull back and take a "big picture" perspective. With each step you take to get farther back the more clear the picture becomes.
Let's take another common residential example, household recycling. In the US it is most common for a household to have 2 bins: "garbage" and "recyclables" which are probably picked up at different times on different trucks. Most American toss everything that *they* consider to be recyclable into the bin and pat themselves on the back for helping to save the planet.
They feel very proud and good about themselves, so that is valuable and positive, isn't it? Better mental health? When my cousin, generally a very thoughtful and conscientious person, visited recently she was horrified at some of the things that I threw into the garbage can, and scolded me for "not recycling". Yesterday, I went to her house for dinner and after dinner she wadded up a large sheet of aluminum foil and threw it into the garbage. "Why?" I asked and she said that it had food stuck to it and was too hard to clean - the gesture of recycling felt good but the effort and understanding of it was too much. Of all the commonly recycled materials, aluminum is the easiest and most valuable by far.
Anyone who has seen a documentary about recycling, and plastics in particular, should recognize that unless it is done properly it is worse than not doing it at all. The recyclability of plastics is a subterfuge created and perpetuated by the plastics industry for decades. For example, 2 types of plastics are realistically recycled: HDPE and PET. But if the "plastics" bin is contaminated with non-recyclable plastic then it will almost surely be rejected entirely because it is insanely hard to separate downstream by anyone except the user who originally examined it and selected it for recycling.
Where I live, in an older suburb of a mid-sized city with municipal garbage collection, I never bother with leaving a "recycling" bin at the curb because I know that whatever they collect is so hopelessly contaminated that it will surely be discarded. Many (most?) people in the US seem to imagine that there is some mythical "recycling center" where an army of workers (worker bees?) continually sifts through a city's worth of "recycled" waste and carefully sorts it out. Yeah, right. There may be a large magnet that nabs the iron, but only because that is easy.
What I do know is that around here there are 4 things that really do get recycled: metal (sorted into aluminum and steel), glass (sorted by color), plastic ("1" and "2" only), and clean un-coated paper and cardboard. Fortunately, there is a recycling center about 2 miles from my house and I can utilize it to ensure that I have reduced the waste stream by a tiny bit. I am sure that I recycle less volume than many people but I feel that my efforts are actually effective.
I have 3 recommendations for a human being attempting to live a more satisfying life in modern society (and these don't involve money!): (1) reduce waste (in all its forms), (2) always use your precious vote carefully and thoughtfully to ensure that only the most careful and thoughtful candidates are elected to govern our planet (and if that is only choosing between the lesser of 2 evils,
so be it, don't squander what influence you possess), and (3) improve the emotional tenor of your personal interactions with your fellow humans.
This last one is supremely important. Contemporary societal pressures have caused interpersonal interactions to shrivel and become vapid and empty, not to mention cold and unkind. Be polite and courteous, and smile when you talk to people. Call people by name and tell them that you appreciate their help. Societies (certainly in the US) have been devolving for decades in terms of general satisfaction with life and personal happiness, and I believe that a big part of it is that people in general are simply not as compassionate and friendly as they used to be. Not to mention that having the biggest ******* on the planet as president seemed to give license to millions to display their own inner *******s.
It is our responsibility to create harmony with those around us. Making "small talk" is a social lubricant, and when you sincerely acknowledge the humanity of the person in front of you they will likely respond in kind. Bring a smile to somebody's face and I guarantee that you will feel better about yourself. That is not being cheap, false, or trivial. When you make somebody smile
it is you who are giving them a gift.
