Can I believe in materialism (or naturalism?” and still believe that things have inherent meanings? In other words, can I believe that the mind is a part of the world, and that it does things, but that it cannot make things mean anything?

I’d like to be able to endorse the statement in the title, but I don’t see how it’s possible. It looks to me like materialism and naturalism require us to believe that the mind (or the brain) can draw lines, form shapes, and assign meanings to them. In other words, no matter how simple or complex the ideas are, it always appears to be the mind that is doing the work of forming connections, creating meaning and value, and designing categories. If things like math, language, science, philosophy, art, politics, culture, and religion can only be understood as ideas, but the mind is what turns ideas into things that are real and that have meaning, then it appears to me that everything that is real is created by the mind, which makes me feel like I have to be an idealist — which I don’t want to do. I’d like to be a materialist and still believe that things have inherent meanings and values.