For the Rev. Sandy Bochonok it was love at first step.

“It was a profound experience; the extraordinary coming from the ordinary. It felt like the garden of Eden.”

She was talking about her first experience of many with walking a labyrinth, an ancient circular path that can lead the walker to unexpected places.

“All we have to do is take the first step,” she said. “The labyrinth shows us how to walk it.”

Bochonok is an ordained Protestant minister and former navy chaplain, and is currently an “E-Pastor” for Soulfoodministry.com, an Internet spiritual outreach site. She lives in Silverdale.

Her first labyrinth experience was in a private garden overlooking Dyes Inlet, but they have been used for thousands of years by cultures around the world as a source of meditation and spiritual connection. Labyrinth walkers have reported being transformed by the simple experience. Bochonok recalled one person who said she felt she had “touched the heart of God” at the center of the labyrinth.

It’s important to note that labyrinths are not mazes — there is only one path to follow, which leads in a circular fashion to the center and back out again.

“It’s impossible to get lost. There are no tricks or dead ends,” Bochonok said. “Trust the path and you’re guaranteed to find the center.”

If that sounds like a metaphor for life, it is. The labyrinth is rife with metaphors. Some people say walking a labyrinth is like peeling an onion: each turn reveals more layers of the self. Like the labyrinth life is a journey, the only way to get there is to put one foot in front of the other. They can look confusing from the outside, but once the walker begins, the path becomes clear.

The labyrinth forces the walker to slow down; a rare event in a hectic world. The simplicity of the act of putting one foot in front of the other allows walkers to clear their minds, creating room for peace and inspiration to come in.

Bochonok will lead a four-hour workshop June 17 at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on Bainbridge using her portable 24-foot by 24-foot canvas labyrinth.

“It will be a day of holy hilarity, holy leisure and holy creativity,” she said.

The workshop, “A Friendly Day with the Labyrinth: Creative Ways to Pray, Play and Ponder,” is a warmup for the following weekend, when the first Bainbridge Island Labyrinth Festival takes place June 24, organized by Bochonok. That event will feature all three outdoor labyrinths, at Grace Episcopal Church, Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church and Eagledale County Park.

“I am extremely grateful to the churches for their participation,” Bochonok said. She noted that walking the labyrinth is not an activity restricted to any one ideology or religion. “We’re not promoting any one religion. It’s a day to celebrate the path.”

The labyrinth at Grace church is an 11-circuit stone path, modeled after the famous labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. The labyrinth at Rolling Bay is a nine-circuit modified Chartres path, built just last year. The labyrinth at Eagledale County Park is called a “relationship labyrinth,” with parallel paths designed for two walkers side by side. It was created by Bainbridge photographer Charmelle Poole, and features concrete pavers in a large spiral atop a grassy knoll.

While walking a labyrinth is often a profoundly spiritual exercise, Bochonok said it needn’t be a somber event.

“The (early) Christians made it somber,” she said. “I like to make people dance and prance as well as pray and ponder.”

The labyrinth workshop takes place 10 a.m to 4 p.m. June 17 at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 1187 Wyatt Way, Bainbridge Island. Suggested donation is $10. Participants are asked to bring a lunch, clean socks or bedroom slippers (to keep the canvas clean), and a sense of adventure and pilgrimage. Register by calling the church at (206) 842-5601.

The Bainbridge Island Labyrinth Festival takes place from noon to 4 p.m. June 24, beginning at Grace Episcopal Church, 8595 NE Day Road East and progressing to Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church and Eagledale County Park. It is free.